In the Wall Street Journal, Jean Guerrero writes an interesting article about how cities are fighting street crime by the simple act of leaving the lights on deeper into the night. (Other cities have tried Barry Manilow music, with some success.) But leaving the lights on all night doesn’t always jibe with a city’s budget plans — or its global-warming conscience:
Earlier this year, Joplin, Mo., reported a 47% drop in crime since 2007, when it started adding or replacing more than 1,000 lights throughout the city to reduce crime. And in other cities, like Fresno, Calif., plans to turn off street lights to cut carbon emissions and reduce costs have been thwarted by resistance from those with concerns about crime levels.
You get fewer roaches too.
One thing you can guarantee at any level in government is that, what ever decision you make, you are wrong by somebody.
That’s why it is important to make policy from the available facts and careful thought, not fashion and responding to “who shouts loudest.”
In this case – do we definitely save lives today or maybe save lives in a hundred years time assuming nothing else changes before then?