A half-square-mile neighborhood in north St. Louis County, Mo., long riddled with violence, is now the frontier of crime prevention: A group of residents, researchers and cops are experimenting with crime-fighting tools — from painting murals to cleaning up vacant lots to installing street lights — and then tracking how those steps reduce crime, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. “This community needs restored hope,” said Shonte Byrd, community engagement coordinator for the St. Louis County police. Castle Point is a few dozen blocks of mostly single-family homes just east of Ferguson. The small unincorporated community has deteriorated — houses were left vacant, their windows boarded over, their yards accumulated trash. Unemployment and poverty grew. Burglars stripped empty houses of copper piping and wiring. Drugs changed hands, the sound of gunfire became more commonplace, and people started dying.
Although Castle Point makes up less than 1 percent of the county’s population, the area accounted for more than 20 percent of its homicides in 2016. “It offends me, and it makes me want to do something,” said Gea Johnson, president of the Castle Point Community Alliance. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded St. Louis County police a $1 million crime reduction grant. Police tapped Southern Illinois University Carbondale as research partner. Led by Prof. Tammy Kochel, students have surveyed residents, and analyzed gunshots recorded by the ShotSpotter system and calls to police. The grant will pay for a community garden, clearing heavy brush and debris on vacant properties, jersey barriers in front of abandoned homes, and an electronic message board to broadcast community updates. It will cover some police overtime and several policing tools, including the installation of a third 360-degree camera, handheld metal detectors to help police find shell casings, and paper notices with police contact information that can be left on front-door handles.