Does the Chicago Safe Passage Program Reduce Reported Crime Around Elementary Schools? Evidence From Longitudinal, Geocoded Crime Data

• DOI: 10.1177/0887403418812125
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403418812125

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2019, Vol. 30(9) 1385 –1407

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403418812125

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Article

Does the Chicago Safe

Passage Program Reduce

Reported Crime Around

Elementary Schools? Evidence

From Longitudinal, Geocoded

Crime Data

F. Chris Curran1

Abstract

The Chicago Public School’s Safe Passage program is a large-scale intervention

designed to improve the safety of students as they travel to and from schools. By

placing hundreds of adult monitors on designated streets around schools, the program

has the potential to reduce crime. This study evaluates Safe Passage’s impact on

crime around primary schools during the 2013-2014 expansion of the program. Using

longitudinal, geocoded crime data and a difference-in-differences and triple-difference

methodology, this study finds suggestive, though not conclusive, evidence that Safe

Passage may have contributed to lower crime on designated routes despite some

increases in crime around designated “welcoming schools” during the 2013-2014

school year. Implications for the continued expansion of the program and further

directions for research of the program are discussed.

Keywords

safety, commute, prevention, crime, school, urban, education

Introduction

In recent years, the city of Chicago has drawn national headlines for violence against

students before and after school (Associated Press, 2009; NPR, 2013). In an effort to

1University of Maryland, Baltimore County, MD, USA

Corresponding Author:

F. Chris Curran, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle,

Public Policy Building 411, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.

Email: curranfc@umbc.edu

812125CJPXXX10.1177/0887403418812125Criminal Justice Policy ReviewCurran

research-article2018

1386 Criminal Justice Policy Review 30(9)

ensure the safe transit of students to and from schools, Chicago Public Schools (CPS)

implemented the Safe Passage (SP) program. Started as a pilot program in the late

2000s and greatly expanded in 2013, SP represents one of the most robust interven-

tions for improving student safety while commuting to and from school. Though mul-

tifaceted in design, the core of SP involves the hiring and placement of a large number

of adult monitors along designated “safe passage” streets leading to and from schools.

In 2014, nearly 600 SP workers were working around CPS, with this number increas-

ing to over 1,000 in more recent years (CBS Chicago, 2013; CPS, 2017).

These monitors, who are present for several hours in both the morning and after-

noon, provide an official presence that may potentially reduce crime around schools.

Indeed, claims of reduced crime have been made by school officials, the police depart-

ment, and the media in recent years (Ali, 2015; CPS, 2014, 2015; Gulasingam, 2016;

Masterson, 2017). For instance, a recent news headline read “Safe Passage Works,

Data Shows,” while another stated, “CPS Says Crime Down by One-Third Along Safe

Passage Routes” (Ali, 2015; Masterson, 2017). Similarly, the CPS’s website has made

claims of decreased criminal incidents along SP routes (CPS, 2015). Similarly, other

organizations, implementing SP-type programs in other locales, have also made claims

regarding their ability to reduce crime (Urban Peace Institute, n.d.).

Such claims, however, have not been rigorously evaluated. During the same period

of time that crime was decreasing along SP routes, reported crime was also dropping

in the city of Chicago overall (Bernstein & Isackson, 2014; Papachristos, 2013). To

date, little work has attempted to disentangle the impacts of SP on crime from general

trends in crime within the city. Given the cost of SP, understanding the effects of the

program is important as policy makers consider continued support and expansion. SP

employees work approximately 5 hours a day for 5 days a week at a rate of US$10 per

hour (CPS, 2013). With over 1,000 SF employees hired (CPS, 2017), the weekly cost

of wages alone is over US$250,000. Over the course of a year, this expense is nearly

equivalent to hiring an additional 90 full-time teachers. In short, then, the SP program

represents a costly intervention whose impacts are largely unknown.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the relationship between SP and the fre-

quency of reported crime around Chicago public elementary schools (K-8th grades in

Chicago) and on SP routes. This study focuses on the 2013-2014 expansion of SP, in

which the program was expanded to include elementary schools for the first time. In

response to the closing of a large number of city schools due to under-enrollment, CPS

designated a number of schools that were receiving displaced students as “welcoming

schools” and provided most of these with an SP route (Torre et al., 2015). This study

seeks to understand the impact of these SP routes on community crime both around

these elementary schools in general and on the SP routes. In particular, this study

addresses the following research questions:

1. Research Question 1: What is the relationship between the presence of SP

routes around Chicago primary schools and the number of crimes reported

around the schools?