Crime rates in big cities have steadily increased over the years creating much concern and worry over the safety of particular areas. There are however, some cities that have done certain things to try to reduce the crime rate or to keep it constantly lower than other cities in the world. Some of the places that are known to have implemented methods such as using surveillance video cameras or a video surveillance system is London whereas other methods have been successfully put in place in areas such as New York City and Stockholm, Sweden to make them safer for the people that live and vacation there. This article will discuss some of those changes that these areas have done to reduce the crime rates or keep them low in the first place.
London, England has not had a wonderful reputation for being a particularly safe place as far as big European cities go in the past. After all, the old Jack the Ripper story happened from London. Today is a much different place, however, with London being one of the safest European cities around and the rate of catching criminals during their crime is very high. Installing more video cameras within the busy areas of London helped decrease criminal behavior more than any other city in the world. On just one city corner you could have 4 to 5 various viewpoints from cameras surveying the area to catch an illegal act or some kind of violent behavior.
Another city that has tried to clean up their act as far as crime is concerned is New York City. Since he became mayor of New York, Rudy Guiliani was not satisfied with the way Times Square was turning into a crime ridden place of prostitution and drugs. This area was then slowly turned into a family friendly tourist area making it a much safer place for people to go by bringing in family friendly stores like Disney and American Girl and by increasing the police forces on foot and on horse by 3 times the amount. The combination of more police officers and bringing in new types of business totally transformed the Times Square part of the city to be a fun safe destination for tourists to visit today.
Another place that has stayed above their crime rates and have one of the safest places in the world is Stockholm, Sweden. Part of this is from the tough laws that they have in place and the low overall crime rates from the whole country. People tend to be more content and less stressed in this region and the lower crime rates reflect that. Everyone particpates in taking care of their neighborhoods there to keep them tidy and to look out for one another and this sense of strong community has been one of the best crime deterrents to exist.
If other cities could follow some of these examples, the world would be a safe place. Not a horrible thing to hope for.