DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02628
title: Reducing Disorder, Fear, and Crime in Public Housing: Evaluation of a Drug-Crime Elimination Program in Spokane, Washington, 1992-1995
title: Archival Version

description: Established in 1994, Project ROAR (Reclaiming Our Area
Residences) is a public housing drug-crime elimination program
sponsored by the Spokane Police Department and the Spokane Housing
Authority. This study was undertaken to examine and evaluate the
effects and outcomes of Project ROAR as it was implemented in the
Parsons' Public Housing Complex, located in downtown Spokane,
Washington. In addition, the study sought to determine to what extent
the project as implemented reflected Project ROAR as originally
conceived, and whether Project ROAR could be considered a
comprehensive community policing crime prevention program. Further,
the study attempted to determine what effects this collaborative
anti-crime program might have on: (1) residents' perceptions of the
quality of their neighborhood life, including perceptions of
neighborhood inhabitants, satisfaction with their neighborhood, fear
of crime, and neighborhood physical and social disorder, (2) objective
measures of physical and social disorder, (3) levels of neighborhood
crime, and (4) subjective perceptions of the level and quality of
policing services. To assess the implementation and short-term impacts
of Project ROAR, data were collected from various sources. First, four
waves of face-to-face interviews were conducted with Parsons' Public
Housing residents at approximately six-month intervals: April 1994,
December 1994, May 1995, and November 1995 (Part 1, Public Housing
Residents Survey Data). Information collected from interviews with the
Parsons' residents focused on their involvement with Project ROAR,
community block watches, and tenant councils. Residents commented on
whether there had been any changes in the level of police presence,
drug-related crimes, prostitution, or any other physical or social
changes in their neighborhood since the inception of Project
ROAR. Residents were asked to rate their satisfaction with the housing
complex, the neighborhood, the Spokane Police Department, the number
of police present in the neighborhood, and the level of police
service. Residents were also asked if they had been the victim of any
crimes and to rate their level of fear of crime in the complex during
the day and night, pre- and post-Project ROAR. The gender and age of
each survey participant was also recorded. The second source of data
was a city-wide survey mailed to the residents of Spokane (Part 2,
Spokane Citizens Survey Data). Information collected from the survey
includes demographics on ethnicity, gender, age, highest level of
education, present occupation, and family income. The city residents
were also asked to assess the level of police service, the number of
police present in their neighborhood, the helpfulness of neighbors,
whether they felt safe alone in their neighborhood, and overall
satisfaction with their neighborhood. Third, a block-level physical
and social disorder inventory was taken in April 1994, October 1994,
April 1994, and October 1995 (Part 3, Neighborhood Inventory
Data). The sex, age, and behavior of the first ten people observed
during the inventory period were recorded, as well as the number of
people observed loitering. Other observations made included the number
of panhandlers, prostitutes, open drug sales, and displays of public
drunkenness. The number of residential and commercial properties,
restaurants, bars, office buildings, empty lots, unboarded and boarded
abandoned buildings, potholes, barriers (walls or fences), abandoned
cars, and for-sale signs, along with the amount of graffiti on public
and private properties and the amount of litter and broken glass
observed in each neighborhood, completed the inventory data. Finally,
crime reports were collected from the Spokane Police Department's
Crime Analysis Unit (Part 4, Disaggregated Crime Data, and Part 5,
Aggregated Crime Data). These data contain monthly counts of robberies
and burglaries for the public housing neighborhood, a constructed
controlled comparison neighborhood, and the city of Spokane for the
period January 1, 1992, through December 31, 1995.
description: Project ROAR (Reclaiming Our Area Residences),
 established in 1994, is a public housing drug-crime elimination
 program sponsored by the Spokane Police Department and the Spokane
 Housing Authority. The program reflected a public-private,
 inter-agency collaboration that sought to empower public housing
 tenants in an effort to produce a safer neighborhood. The main
 purposes of Project ROAR were (1) to build upon the ideas of past and
 present community-based crime prevention and reduction efforts, (2) to
 provide insight into the effectiveness of such programs as they
 related to the mobilization of public housing residents, and (3) to
 examine the extent to which community-based crime prevention programs
 could create positive changes in perceptions of safety, neighborhood
 disorder, and crime rates. The Project ROAR program targeted poor
 neighborhoods located in central business districts with large elderly
 and transient populations that were experiencing high rates of drug
 dealing and related crime and disorder problems. Key elements of the
 program as originally conceived included: (1) opening a
 community-oriented policing substation within the public housing area
 and assigning a neighborhood resource officer to the target area, (2)
 collaborative problem-solving meetings among all key stakeholders in
 the targeted neighborhood, (3) the development of a neighborhood
 improvement committee, (4) hiring a resident resource coordinator to
 act as a liaison between the public housing residents and other
 program participants, (5) coordinating crime prevention education
 programs with the city's Crime Prevention Center and Block Watch, and
 (6) initiating neighborhood physical improvements. The purpose of this
 study was to examine and evaluate the effects and outcomes of Project
 ROAR as it was implemented in the Parsons' Public Housing Complex,
 located in downtown Spokane, Washington. Moreover, the study sought to
 determine to what extent the project as implemented reflected Project
 ROAR as originally conceived, and whether Project ROAR could be
 considered a comprehensive community crime prevention
 program. Further, the study sought to determine what effects a
 collaborative anti-crime program might have on: (1) residents'
 perceptions of the quality of their neighborhood life, including
 perceptions of neighborhood inhabitants, satisfaction with their
 neighborhood, fear of crime, and neighborhood physical and social
 disorder, (2) objective measures of physical and social disorder, (3)
 levels of neighborhood crime, and (4) subjective perceptions of the
level and quality of policing services.
description: To assess the implementation and short-term
 impacts of Project ROAR, data were collected from four sources. First,
 four waves of face-to-face interviews were conducted with a
 representative sample of the Parsons' Public Housing residents
 approximately at six-month intervals: April 1994, December 1994, May
 1995, and November 1995 (Part 1, Public Housing Residents Survey
 Data). The interviews generally touched upon perceptions of the
 quality of neighborhood life and the level and quality of police
 services. The second source of data was a city-wide mail survey on
 many of the same items included in the Parsons' resident interviews
 sent to residents of the city of Spokane (Part 2, Spokane Citizens
 Survey Data). The intent was to conduct two such sets of interviews
 and to oversample from both the Project ROAR area and the Spokane city
 area, in an effort to gain a sufficient number of respondents from
 these two neighborhoods. The study did not produce sufficient numbers
 by which meaningful conclusions could be drawn, despite
 oversampling. The Spokane citizens' survey, however, can be used to
 examine trends among city residents as a whole. Given the
 differences in method of administration (face-to-face interviews
 versus mail surveys), direct comparisons between the Parsons' resident
 interviews and the Spokane citizens' survey should not be made. Third,
 a controlled site was constructed which was similar to the project
 area that surrounded the Parsons Public Housing Complex with regard to
 individual and neighborhood characteristics (Part 3, Neighborhood
 Inventory Data). The control site was used to develop comparisons to
 the project area with respect to objective measures of social and
 physical disorder. A block-level physical and social disorder
 inventory was conducted in April 1994 (to gather baseline data),
 October 1994, April 1995, and October 1995. The inventory was
 conducted for 44 blocks that comprised the total number of blocks in
 the project and comparison areas. A team of independent evaluators
 walked through all of the blocks in both the project and comparison
 sites during various times of the day and recorded observations of the
 physical and social environment. Inter-evaluator reliability checks
 were made to ensure consistency of the data collected. Each
 block-level inventory began with the evaluators recording the street
 name and cross streets, date, time, and the estimated
 temperature. Immediately thereafter, the social environment inventory
 was conducted. For exactly one minute, evaluators observed the social
 activity of the block, recording the number of individuals present
 outside, their gender, approximate age, and their behavior. After one
 minute elapsed, the physical environment inventory
 commenced. Evaluators recorded the number of guardianship items,
 lighting items, and disorder items found on each block. Due to varied
 block lengths, the environment inventory (per block) lasted anywhere
 between five and forty minutes. Lastly, 24 months of pre-program and
 post-program implementation crime data were collected from the Spokane
 Police Department's Crime Analysis Unit for the period beginning
 January 1, 1992, and ending December 31, 1995 (Part 4, Disaggregated
 Crime Data, and Part 5, Aggregated Crime Data). The Crime Analysis
 Unit routinely collected data on reported crimes for burglaries,
 robberies, and sex offenses. Burglary was defined as any unauthorized
 entry into a residential or commercial dwelling, and robbery was
 defined as any use of force or the threat of force for purposes of
 committing a theft. Data for the crimes outlined were collected for
 the project area, the controlled comparison area, and the city of
Spokane.
description: For Part 1, Public Housing Residents Survey Data,
 information collected from interviews with the Parsons' residents
 focused on their involvement with Project ROAR, community block
 watches, and tenant councils. Residents commented on whether there had
 been any changes in the level of police presence, drug-related crimes,
 prostitution, or any other physical or social changes in their
 neighborhood since the inception of Project ROAR. Residents were asked
 to rate their satisfaction with the housing complex, the neighborhood,
 the Spokane Police Department, the number of police present in the
 neighborhood, and the level of police service. Residents were also
 asked if they had been the victim of any crimes and to rate their
 level of fear of crime in the complex during the day and night, pre-
 and post-Project ROAR. The gender and age of each survey participant
 was also recorded. The second source of data was a city-wide survey
 mailed to the residents of Spokane (Part 2, Spokane Citizens Survey
 Data). Information collected from the survey includes demographics on
 ethnicity, gender, age, highest level of education, present
 occupation, and family income. The city residents were also asked to
 assess the level of police service, the number of police present in
 their neighborhood, the helpfulness of neighbors, whether they felt
 safe alone in their neighborhood, and overall satisfaction with their
 neighborhood. Third, a block-level physical and social disorder
 inventory was taken in April 1994, October 1994, April 1994, and
 October 1995 (Part 3, Neighborhood Inventory Data). The sex, age, and
 behavior of the first ten people observed during the inventory period
 were recorded, as well as the number of people observed
 loitering. Other observations made included the number of panhandlers,
 prostitutes, open drug sales, and displays of public drunkenness. The
 number of residential and commercial properties, restaurants, bars,
 office buildings, empty lots, unboarded and boarded abandoned
 buildings, potholes, barriers (walls or fences), abandoned cars, and
 for-sale signs, along with the amount of graffiti on public and
 private properties and the amount of litter and broken glass observed
 in each neighborhood, completed the inventory data. Parts 4 and 5
 both contain a monthly count of selected crime data for the public
 housing neighborhood, the comparison neighborhood, and the city of
 Spokane for the period January 1, 1992, through December 31, 1995.
 The difference between the two files is that Part 4 is disaggregated,
 meaning that for each month of a particular year, the total number of
 robberies, the total number of burglaries, and the total number of sex
 crimes are given separately for each of the three study areas. Part 5
 does not report data on sex crimes, and for each study area, the total
 number of robberies and burglaries are combined and given for each
month and year.
description: Response Rates: Unknown.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used in Parts 1 and 2.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Public Housing Residents Survey Data
DS2: Spokane Citizens Survey Data
DS3: Neighborhood Inventory Data
DS4: Disaggregated Crime Data
DS5: Aggregated Crime Data
description: Part 1: Residents of the Parsons' Housing Complex. Part 2:
Citizens in the city of Spokane. Part 3: A constructed controlled
comparison site and the Project ROAR neighborhood. Parts 4 and 5: The
Project ROAR neighborhood, comparison site, and city of Spokane.
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
instruments are provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The
PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be
accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat
Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is
provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.