Crime fighting 101

Birmingham might look to Denver for a new approach to fighting crime. City Journal has the details.

Denver's "new approach" is actually an old approach. It's modeled after what Rudy Giuliani did in New York City, with stunning success. The key is good, old-fashioned policing: getting involved in the lives of communities, talking to the people, using crime statistics and citizen reports to determine how to better allocate police resources, and refusing to allow even relatively minor crimes like "broken windows" to go unnoticed and unpunished.

This is all common sense, of course - merely updated variations on the tried and true methods that have been used since...well, since forever. But common sense seems to be something of a rarity in Birmingham these days, where city leaders are keen to build a domed stadium that will seat thousands for a few hours every weekend, while the thousands more outside live in fear day in and day out.