Monterey Park Operation ID Experiment
Operation Identification, the companion to Neighborhood Watch, was, and remains, a critical part of the five pillars of crime prevention, which also includes neighborhood associations, National Night Out and 911.
The first [Operation ID] program was begun in 1963 by Chief Everett Holladay of Monterey Park, Calif., a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. Chief Holladay devised the registration system,… More than half of the 11,000 homeowners in that suburb have used the etching equipment and registered with the police.
What’s incredible are the stunning results of this experiment:
Since then, according to spokesman in his office, there have been 2,025 burglaries in Monterey Park, 2,000 of them in homes not in the program
City Starts Burglary‐Prevention Program – The New York Times
Please let this sink in. The above quote was written about 9 years after the initial experiment began. Let’s just assume 5550 homes were “inoculated” with the three steps of Operation ID and 5500 were “unvaccinated.”
Of the “inoculated” homes, over the course of about 10 years, there were 25 burglaries. 0.45%
Of the “unvaccinated” homes, over the course of 10 years, there were 2000 burglaries. 36%
The results of the Monterey Park experiment were so staggering that law enforcement agencies began falling over themselves implementing Operation ID programs in their communities, all under the watchful eyes of government scientists:
For fiscal years 1974-1978, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration reported spending about $26 million to fund approximately 378 crime prevention projects with an Operation Identification component. GGD-79-54 Department of Justice Should Explore the Feasibility of a Uniform Identification System for Marking Personal Property
That’s about $130 million in today’s money.
In 1977, Clarence M. Kelley, Director of the FBI stated:
A nationwide public information campaign is needed to convince citizens in all parts of the country to participate in property marking.
and also stated:
The following is a joint statement of the National Law Enforcement Committee on Operation Identification, which I wholeheartedly support. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin – November 1977 — LEB
William Webster, Director of the FBI, followed with an endorsement in 1978, and the US Attorney General, Griffin Bell and the Government Accountability Office, in 1979.
Unfortunately, our broader civil society was just not interested in pursuing the strategy even though it has such incredible outcomes.
This is why I have decided to keep pushing for its adoption wherever I can, and to see it succeed as an alternative to Neighborhood Watch and as an enhancement of our neighborhood associations.
