Call the pastorMODERN police work in America often resembles science fiction as much as a film noir. Mapping software guides police to neighbourhoods suffering from spikes in crime. Grizzled detectives are urged to follow data rather than their gut instincts, and—in some city districts plagued by gun crime—to focus efforts on small groups of individuals (often young men), who turn out to be linked to a startling proportion of shootings. The scientific approach has shown results: from 1993 to 2014 national murder rates fell by half.
In the past year or two, however, some big cities have seen violent crime rates tick back up. As police and community leaders try to contain this trend, some of the toughest urban areas in the country are placing a bet on a technique that could hardly be lower-tech. Put simply, the new approach involves asking criminals not to shoot one another, notably in the first 12 to 72 hours after one of their peers has been attacked and cries for revenge are loudest.
In such cities as Las Vegas—a sprawling, transient place that draws gamblers of all sorts—the...Continue reading
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