LOCAL COLOR/Benching crime

Imagine a place where people sit on their front porches on benches, sip iced tea and talk to their neighbors while watching kids play. If a 1950s sitcom comes to mind, think again. Think present-day Phoenix.

In the nation’s sixth-largest city, Mayor Phil Gordon is trying to return to simpler times, when neighbors looked out for the safety of each other and their communities. With his Front Porch Bench Initiative, the mayor is encouraging folks to sit on city-provided benches on their front porches and keep an eye on neighborhood goings-on — all in the name of crime reduction and community building. So far, it seems to be working out.

Gordon came up with the idea this year when he was taking a break from mowing the grass and sat on the bench in his front yard. After one neighbor came over, additional ones followed, and soon they were all engrossed in conversation. That’s when Gordon realized that being neighborly could have public safety implications.

“If people are out front instead of in their back yards, then the bad guys don’t go in [people’s houses],” Gordon says. “I figured I would use the bench as a symbol.”

In April, the mayor’s office kicked off the program by giving away 200 benches around the city. Armed with benches purchased with $50,000 in privately raised funds — and at a heavy discount courtesy of Home Depot — Mayor Gordon and his staff distributed the benches to neighborhood leaders. Each bench comes with a plaque emblazoned with the program name and a packet of information about how to report neighborhood crime and how to get involved in city government.

Program Manager Bobby Ford says that the initiative has proved so popular that even after giving away about 700 more benches, nearly 4,500 people are on a waiting list to receive one. Residents can apply for a bench through the Internet, an enclosure with their water bill or by writing the program’s manager in the mayor’s office. Recipients of the benches are selected by several drawings and by a committee consisting of city employees and members of a police citizen’s academy.

Not only has the program been well received — and garnered national media attention as well — it already has produced results. The first day of the program, one couple sitting on a bench in their front yard witnessed a fight between two teenagers. The couple placed a call to the police, who sat the teenagers down and gave them a citizenship lesson — on the bench, no less. Other bench-sitting residents have helped capture a man with an outstanding arrest warrant and an illegal dumper. To effectively track the program’s results, the city’s IT Department, in conjunction with the Police Department, plans to build a database to identify where each bench is located and patterns of crime in participating neighborhoods.

“This really is community-based policing at its essence,” Gordon says. “When you’re out there, you get to know your neighbors. All of a sudden, you know not only who belongs there, but who doesn’t.”

Because of its popularity, the mayor’s office plans to expand the initiative. Home Depot recently agreed to provide $50,000 for each of the next four years as the program’s main corporate sponsor. Phase two, which is now beginning, calls for the city to place a special sign on streets where every house participates in the program. In addition, the program has joined with homebuilders to provide benches for each of the new homes they build. According to Ford, the corporate sponsor also plans to help cities across the nation jump-start their own bench projects. Gordon is pleased about the company’s support, as well as the success of his inaugural program.

“It really is about building communities’ pride,” Gordon says. “This [program] is really taking off beyond our expectations.”