Can ping pong fight crime in Seattle parks?

Can ping pong prevent crime in some of Seattle’s parks? No, of course not. But that’s not stopping the City of Seattle and neighborhood activists from trying the game as a crime prevention tool.

Now, they don’t actually think ping pong will stop crime. But they do think it will have an impact by bringing non-criminals to parks in Seattle who want to come and enjoy the space, change the environment to a more positive one, thus pushing out the bad element.

“[The ping pong tables] can bring in people to see there’s something positive here,” said Adrienne Caver-Hall to KING 5. She heads up the city’s efforts to spruce up parks with family activities. “It changes the perception that parks can be dark and unsafe.”

Well, they still can be dark and unsafe at night; a ping pong table doesn’t make the area bright and safe after dark.

Now, ping pong, just as a concept, seems like a bad idea because the balls and rackets can be so easily destroyed, stolen or lost. Plus, it would be a sad bit of irony if one of those rackets is used to commit a crime.

Which parks are the recipients of these crime fighting ping pong tables? KING 5 reports “Cal Anderson Park in Seattle got its first free ping pong table this week after a community group raised $1,500 to buy the table, paddles and balls.”

First, Cal Anderson Park cannot be saved. You get a contact high walking past the park. Second, $1,500 for the table? I understand you can’t just set up any old ping pong table, but this still seems pricey (unless it works to deter crime).

Other parks with the tables include: Hing Hay Park in Chinatown, Westlake, Occidental, and Pier 62/63.

Now, apparently this has been a hit in Chinatown.

“Ping pong brings people to a neighborhood, to a space,” said Maiko Winkler-Chin, director of the Chinatown International District Preservation & Development Authority to KING 5. “If there’s a lot of positive activity, some of the negative stuff doesn’t want to be here.”

But has it made the area safe? They don’t have data to back that up yet, though it seems promising:

Crime data from the Seattle Police Department suggests incidents in the area near Hing Hay Park seem to ping-pong up and down over the years:

2009: 46 incidents
2010: 38
2011: 15
2012: 39
2013: 10
2014: 16

Does this make the park more fun? Sure. Safer? I don’t know and the evidence doesn’t yet show a trend. Hopefully it works, but it would appear to me that it will take more than a ping pong table to stop crime at parks. But every bit helps, I suppose. What do you think?