Innovative Crime Fighting in Greenville: The Use of Art
Our partners with the Greenville Police Department shared information about their latest property crime deterrence initiative, the Greenville “Art & Community” Project, which kicked off this past Saturday. The initiative uses lighting, landscaping, and art as deterrence. Officer Sonja Cates with the help of other officers came up with the “Art & Community” project about a year ago. “What public art does is it brings more pedestrians, more vehicles traffic, and more eyes on the street. [It] brings more people out so that criminals have more people watching them and are less likely to commit crime in that area,” said Cates. A block party was held to kick off the project, which was complete with music, games and an art station. Officers were on hand to interact with the community and to explain the project.
Greenville Police plan to expand this program to other parts of the city in the future. For more information about the project, please contact Devinder Culver, Community Projects Coordinator with the Greenville Police Department at 252-329-4180 or dculver@greenvillenc.gov.
