City Officials are Responsible
The first principle of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is that a person is less likely to commit a crime if they think they will be seen doing it (see Fennelly and Crowe). By designing well-lit mixed-use neighborhoods that feature a combination of street-level retail and residential properties, planners can reduce crime by increasing pedestrian traffic and visibility.
The Metropolitan Branch Trail does not meet any principles of CPTED. Most of it is isolated from both residential and commercial properties. Long stretches are fenced in on both sides, essentially trapping trail users and preventing them from being able to seek help if necessary. Several stretches of the trail run alongside open fields, abandoned buildings, and mostly-empty parking lots, leaving trail users vulnerable to unwitnessed attack. To make matters worse, lights are perennially out on the trail, partly because until very recently no single party has been responsible for maintaining them.
Crime on the MBT is caused by this poor design. While design improvements may be implemented over the long term, it is not possible to install healthy, thriving businesses or bustling apartment buildings overnight. As a result, city officials—in particular the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and to a lesser degree the District Department of Transportation (DDOT)—must assume extra responsibility for policing the trail and ensuring the safety of its users.
DDOT is responsible for the security cameras and lighting on the MBT. As of June 2013, there were only three functional cameras on the trail. Even the cameras that are functional have major limitations: for one, they are solar powered, so many do not work at night, and for two, no one one is monitoring them, which means they cannot be used to actually identify or locate criminals in real time. In a January 2013 inventory, major issues were reported with the lighting on the trail as well, including 22 lights that were out completely, making many portions of the already isolated trail even more dangerous. The solutions here are simple: DDOT needs to increase the number and quality of cameras on the trail, and they need to hire someone to at least intermittently monitor them. They also need to be more vigilant about making sure that the trail's existing lighting is always working.
The mission of the MPD is to "safeguard the District of Columbia and protect its residents and visitors." This mission has 11 guiding principles, the first two of which are to "reduce crime and the fear of crime in the community" and "change the culture of the MPD from reacting to crime to building and sustaining safe neighborhoods." In the case of the MBT, the DC police are not living up to these principles. In fact, when faced the difficult task of policing a trail whose environment urges rather than deters crime, DC police have taken the completely wrong approach: they have told riders to not ride the trail alone, or to stay off it altogether. This unreasonable and irresponsible response suggests that the police believe crime on the MBT is not their responsibility.
I argue that if the DC Metropolitan Police Department is to live up to its mission and principles, they need to increase patrols of the trail, bike patrols in particular (see Menton). Bicycle patrols have many tactical advantages and would be especially valuable on the MBT. Squad cars on the trail would not have the same effect and would prevent bicyclists and pedestrians from using the trail as it should be used, car-free. It is the responsibly of the MPD to increase bicycle patrols on the Metropolitan Branch Trail in order to, in the words of their own guiding principles, "reduce crime and fear of crime" on the trail and help "build and sustain" a safe commuting route.
The Metropolitan Branch Trail does not meet any principles of CPTED. Most of it is isolated from both residential and commercial properties. Long stretches are fenced in on both sides, essentially trapping trail users and preventing them from being able to seek help if necessary. Several stretches of the trail run alongside open fields, abandoned buildings, and mostly-empty parking lots, leaving trail users vulnerable to unwitnessed attack. To make matters worse, lights are perennially out on the trail, partly because until very recently no single party has been responsible for maintaining them.
Crime on the MBT is caused by this poor design. While design improvements may be implemented over the long term, it is not possible to install healthy, thriving businesses or bustling apartment buildings overnight. As a result, city officials—in particular the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and to a lesser degree the District Department of Transportation (DDOT)—must assume extra responsibility for policing the trail and ensuring the safety of its users.
DDOT is responsible for the security cameras and lighting on the MBT. As of June 2013, there were only three functional cameras on the trail. Even the cameras that are functional have major limitations: for one, they are solar powered, so many do not work at night, and for two, no one one is monitoring them, which means they cannot be used to actually identify or locate criminals in real time. In a January 2013 inventory, major issues were reported with the lighting on the trail as well, including 22 lights that were out completely, making many portions of the already isolated trail even more dangerous. The solutions here are simple: DDOT needs to increase the number and quality of cameras on the trail, and they need to hire someone to at least intermittently monitor them. They also need to be more vigilant about making sure that the trail's existing lighting is always working.
The mission of the MPD is to "safeguard the District of Columbia and protect its residents and visitors." This mission has 11 guiding principles, the first two of which are to "reduce crime and the fear of crime in the community" and "change the culture of the MPD from reacting to crime to building and sustaining safe neighborhoods." In the case of the MBT, the DC police are not living up to these principles. In fact, when faced the difficult task of policing a trail whose environment urges rather than deters crime, DC police have taken the completely wrong approach: they have told riders to not ride the trail alone, or to stay off it altogether. This unreasonable and irresponsible response suggests that the police believe crime on the MBT is not their responsibility.
I argue that if the DC Metropolitan Police Department is to live up to its mission and principles, they need to increase patrols of the trail, bike patrols in particular (see Menton). Bicycle patrols have many tactical advantages and would be especially valuable on the MBT. Squad cars on the trail would not have the same effect and would prevent bicyclists and pedestrians from using the trail as it should be used, car-free. It is the responsibly of the MPD to increase bicycle patrols on the Metropolitan Branch Trail in order to, in the words of their own guiding principles, "reduce crime and fear of crime" on the trail and help "build and sustain" a safe commuting route.