Tag Archives: crime

Sprawling development and a right to darkness

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American places – and global settings as well – are less dark than in the past:

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Every year, the night sky is becoming 10% brighter. Eighty per cent of people live under light-polluted skies. And while the UN declared a healthy environment – clean air, clean water – to be a human right, I believe we also all have a right to darkness as well…

To preserve the darkness would mean rules and enforcement around the warmth of the lights, where they point, and how bright they can be. It would mean not putting in three lights when one would do. If we recognized that darkness is something we need, we’d become more careful about chasing it away.

Some communities have already done this. Flagstaff, Arizona, was the first city to have outdoor lighting rules, adding them in 1958. In 2001, Flagstaff became the first recognized Dark Sky City. Their rules regulate how much light can be used, what type, and where it can shine.

Other cities and towns in the US and abroad have followed. New York state is now considering a Dark Skies Protection Act, which would add restrictions on outdoor lighting – including some that would affect the city that never sleeps. All it takes to preserve the night near you is the desire to protect it with a new zoning law or, perhaps, a rule for how bright car headlights can be.

It could be helpful to look at why American skies are brighter than in the past. Here are multiple possible reasons:

  1. Concern for safety. As Americans feared crime for decades, lighting was part of the solution.
  2. More development which equals more housing, roads, and spaces to light for human activity.
  3. Different expectations and standards for spaces. How have building codes changed regarding lighting? How do people perceive darkness now compared to the past (see #1 above)?
  4. Less engagement with nature or natural settings. Could be more screens, less walking and more driving, different modes of engagement with nature.

If Americans want darker skies or the right to dark skies, how might they then also address these other issues?

I understand the concern as a street light sits along the residential road in my front yard and the back yard has a bright light shining from an HOA building behind our back yard. With all the direct light plus the metropolitan light, it takes work and travel to find spaces where one can enjoy the dark and the night sky.

But would neighbors, the nearby HOA, and the suburb I live in want to decrease their light use or land use or change their regulations? It would take sustained collective effort to make these suburban skies dark.

Resistance to Flock cameras but willingness to add doorbell cameras and maybe toothbrush cameras?

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Flock cameras are facing resistance in a number of American communities. But why such resistance when Ring cameras are common and other home devices can have cameras? Indeed, many consumer products can contain cameras:

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This week at the international home appliance exhibition IFA 2026 in Berlin, appliance maker Miele unveiled a smart dishwasher. It comes with an app so you can keep tabs on its performance, and the ability to automatically run during off-peak electricity hours.   It’s also equipped with a camera on the inside of the door, all the better to monitor your dishes and make sure the machine can accurately meet your “personal preferences” when it comes to washing them.

Cameras have been the name of the game in the appliance world for some time now. Smart ovens, refrigerators, and doorbells have all gotten the camera treatment, attempting to close the gaps of mystery in our daily lives. Miele isn’t the only company joining in on the trend this month: Dyson just rolled out a $500 electric toothbrush that uses a tiny, 100,000-pixel macro-lens camera to livestream what’s going on in your mouth, as you brush, to an audience of one (you). Allegedly, these cameras help everything run easier, and faster. The dishwasher camera tailors washes for optimal energy efficiency and finally solves the mystery of what goes on inside there during the cycle. The toothbrush camera targets interdental cleaning, helping your teeth stay in pristine condition between dentist-office cleanings. The fridge camera can track your groceries, and the doorbell camera clears up any confusion around who might be at your door while you’re away.

For consumer products, potential buyers can decide not to buy them. As of now, there are plenty of toothbrush and dishwasher and refrigerator options without cameras. That could change in the future but if there are not sales for these devices, that might not happen.

Perhaps people are more okay when they feel they can control the camera more. A dishwasher camera is hopefully only going to look in the dishwasher. The owner can disable the camera or control the machine if desired. Or perhaps they trust Miele, a company, more than law enforcement, with whatever data the camera generates. And plenty of households have smart devices that can listen.

The trade-off of privacy for new technology started a long time ago. Having cameras everywhere is not inevitable. The Flock cameras could proliferate because many residents and communities are worried about crime. Ring cameras are common because residents were worried about their property. People will accept cameras if they feel they get something sufficient in return. Some are not feeling that way about Flock cameras. They might feel better toward toothbrush cameras in the future. If a toothbrush camera could reduce the need for dentist visits, would people purchase them? I’m sure someone is trying to figure what it would take.

Opposition to Flock cameras and which communities will end up keeping them

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More people are stating or acting on their opposition to Flock cameras along roadways:

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Over the last few months, people have cut down surveillance cameras owned by the company Flock Safety with an electric saw in upstate New York, thrown paint on them in Oakland, California, and rammed a truck into them in Idaho. One man in Florida sits in a lawn chair holding up a piece of cardboard on a pole to block the camera’s view. City governments have joined in by deactivating the cameras or canceling contracts with Flock in Fort Collins, Colorado; Eugene, Oregon; Madison, Wisconsin; Knoxville, Tennessee; Syracuse, New York; and Walla Walla, Washington…

Flock says it has 120,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) and pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) cameras deployed throughout the US, capturing tens of billions of data points a month. Flock’s ALPRs automatically scan every license plate that passes them, while the PTZs record live footage that can be reviewed and analyzed. Because Flock cameras are all connected, the result is a nationwide latticework of recorded activity. Across the majority of states, a police officer in one state can be alerted if a car they’re looking for pops up in another and can inform the local authorities…

Over the last few months, Flock has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Police have been caught using the system to stalk exes and colleagues, and journalists have reported that, contrary to the company’s claims that it only logs vehicles, the cameras can be used to track people.

I wondered in October 2025 why there was so little opposition in suburbs to license plate cameras. In that post, I suggested one reason suburban residents may not oppose the cameras is because of fear of crime.

As more Americans now respond to the cameras, which communities will end up cancelling contracts and which ones will keep them? The list above in the first paragraph involves smaller big cities. Does this mean opposition to cameras is primarily in such communities? Or would opposition to cameras drop (1) in places with higher crime rates or (2) in places with higher fear of crime?

It will also be interesting to see how local leaders in different kinds of communities respond to public pressure. Who will resist opposition and what reasons will they give? The company offers a defense of their product and its use; whether local leaders use similar lines remains to be seen.

White collar crime and the “most stupid fraud in history”

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A recent local headline about a court sentencing included this quote: “most stupid fraud in history.” What was the crime?

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A south suburban man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Tuesday in a massive, $14 million fraud scheme where he collected kickbacks for filing more than 1,500 bogus loan applications at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic…

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Zenner, Shrieteh submitted more than 1,500 false PPP loan applications on behalf of at least 1,025 clients beginning in 2020, causing some $14 million of funds to be dispersed, most of which was forgiven by the U.S. government…

As the fraud associated with the PPP loans began making national news, Shrieteh acknowledged to an associate that he was being paid big money, saying in one text message, “Mother(expletive) it’s not coffee,” according to prosecutors.

“You gonna put my ass in jail soon,” Shrieteh wrote, according to the prosecution memo. “Most stupid fraud in history.”

I remember first really thinking about white collar crime in an undergraduate criminology course. Among all the things we did that semester, we spent about four weeks considering white collar crime and its consequences. It often draws less punishment than violent crime. It may be more common than violent crime but tends to get less attention. It can affect a lot of people.

In this particular case, a suburban tax preparer collected money as he used his clients to defraud the federal government. The total PPP loan program in the COVID-19 pandemic involved a lot of money. This was certainly just a drop in the bucket, even as the absolute value of fraud would be a large amount of money for most people.

Is this the “most stupid fraud in history” because this tax preparer was caught? Would lots of people try to defraud the government or take money from a large corporation because they might barely know the money as gone?

Such monies could have gone to helping other people. Taxpayer dollars could have been spent more wisely. And this happens in corporations and other organizations as well; employees can embezzle, cheat, pollute, skirt regulations in ways hurt people.

I bet there might be other examples of white collar crime that people think qualifies as the “most stupid fraud in history.”

Safety and other amenities in a narrative of why families choose to move to specific suburbs

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When there are scores or hundreds of suburbs in large metropolitan regions, how do people select which suburb to move to? I recently read one common narrative based around a top safety ranking for one Chicago suburb:

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It’s a small village, just over an hour from the heart of Chicago by car, but it has consistently reported some of the lowest crime rates in the region, with a violent crime rating of zero. This small-town security is one of the driving forces behind Campton Hills’ rising popularity with families in recent years. People moving out of Chicago or nearby suburbs are looking for peace of mind in their neighborhood, and this village delivers exactly that…

A place with such a high safety ranking is the perfect spot for families to put down roots. In this regard, Campton Hills is truly designed for families to thrive. Schools in the area have earned a strong reputation for academic achievement, supportive teachers, and a wide range of extracurricular opportunities. The village is also home to some of the highest-rated public schools in the state.

In the village, there is an impressive range of amenities to keep families busy. Community parks provide space for picnics, soccer games, and weekend strolls, while nearby forest preserves give children the chance to explore nature close to home. (Nature lovers should visit this peaceful suburb near Chicago next.) Access to healthcare and family-oriented services is reliable, with clinics and hospitals within easy driving distance. Campton Hills also hosts seasonal events that bring neighbors together, including the Boo After Dark Halloween event.

It always feels like a win when you find somewhere close to the city that still feels like it’s tucked away in the middle of nowhere. And Campton Hills’ rural character is something that truly makes it stand out. Unlike some suburbs that feel like extensions of the city, this village keeps the perfect balance of open countryside and convenient access to Chicago.

The story starts with safety. People are looking for a safe place with little to no crime. Their kids will be safe. It is away from the city and others places with crime.

But then the story goes on to include other factors that attract families to this specific suburb. The schools have a good reputation. There are parks and forest preserves. Medical care is nearby. The community comes together for events. It is close to Chicago but feels rural.

Is this how people chose a community to live in? Do they prioritize safety and then if other things look good, they go with that? Do they research all the statistics about various communities, look at rankings provided by numerous sources, and develop their own composite score of which community comes out on top?

I am reminded of research from sociologists Annette Lareau and Elliot Weininger where they find networks, affected by social class and race, mattered for how people chose communities. What networks lead to Campton Hills and other suburbs like it? How do relationships and social ties provide people with information about communities? Do articles like these make their way through some networks?

(Interestingly, Campton Hills is a new suburb: it was incorporated in 2007. And it is relatively small: just over 10,000 residents in the 2020 Census.)

Mortgage fraud rates very low – but on the rise?

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With cases of mortgage fraud in the news, one source says it is rare:

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About 1 in 116 mortgage applications contained fraud in the second quarter of 2025, according to Cotality’s National Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index.

The data shows the two riskiest investments for mortgage fraud are investment properties and multiunit properties.

This is less than 1%.

But the same source says mortgage fraud is on the rise:

“The increase in the fraud risk can partly be attributed to the volatility starting to be seen in the real estate market,” Matt Seguin, senior principal of mortgage fraud solutions, said in the Cotality report. “Interest rate cuts haven’t come at the rate expected over the last year, so purchase transactions, which, historically speaking, have higher fraud risk, continue to represent almost 70% of the applications seen by Cotality.”

Cotality analyzed data in six categories of mortgage fraud: identity, transaction, property, income, occupancy, and undisclosed real estate. The research found that every category except occupancy saw an increase in the second quarter.

The largest year-over-year increases were in undisclosed real estate debt and transaction fraud risk. Undisclosed real estate debt rose 12% this year, compared with a 5.9% decline year over year in 2024. Transaction fraud risk increased 6.2% this year, following a 4.9% increase last year.

Rare and relatively small increases in the last year.

Perhaps the problem of mortgage fraud would sound more serious if this 1 in 116 mortgages was connected to the cumulative money involved. Each mortgage is connected to a good amount of money. Add all the fraud up and how much money are we talking about? Is it enough money for financial institutions or the general public to pay attention to?

Another way to think about this would be to compare fraud rates here with fraud rates with other financial instruments. How about credit card debt? Auto loans? Home equity loans? And so on. Mortgage fraud is low but perhaps it is even lower than in other areas or higher than others.

Regardless of the numbers, absolute or otherwise, fraud is still fraud. But whether it is perceived as a social problem might take more than just reporting the numbers or putting them in context.

The populations of the “safest and wealthiest suburbs” in the US

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A new list of high income and low crime suburbs has this top ten:

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  1. Western Springs, IL
  2. Lexington, MA
  3. Winchester, MA
  4. Whitefish Bay, WI
  5. Huntington Woods, MI
  6. Ottawa Hills, OH
  7. Winnetka, IL
  8. Kenilworth, IL
  9. University Park, MD
  10. Upper Arlington, OH

Here is how GOBankingRates.com developed the list:

GOBankingRates analyzed the top 1,000 cities by household mean income across the United States to find the safest and richest cities using data from the US Census American Community Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, Zillow Home Value Index, Federal Reserve Economic Data, AreaVibes, and the FBI. The property crime rate per 1,000 residents, violent crime rate per 1,000 residents, livability score, household mean income, and the average total cost of living were scored for each location and sorted to show the safest and richest cities. All data was collected on and is up to date as of August 4th, 2025.

Based on a recent post about the wealthy and large suburbs of the United States, including Naperville, Illinois, I was curious about the population size of the top ten communities. Here is their population according to Quick Facts:

  1. 13,600
  2. 34,400
  3. 22,900
  4. 13,700
  5. 6,300
  6. 4,500
  7. 12,100
  8. 2,400
  9. 2,400
  10. 35,300

Not all of these are small towns; some might even be considered small cities. All have household mean incomes of over $200,000.

Going further through the top 50 suburbs, few are really large. Naperville comes in at #49, the largest suburb by population on the list by far.

To make this list, a suburb does not have be small and exclusive. It can be slightly larger and exclusive. I wonder if this is due to using the household mean income rather than the median. The mean is more likely to be pulled up by a small number of really high earners while the median gets at the midpoint of the distribution.

Would Americans view cities differently if the current drop in violent crime continues?

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Crime appears to be down in a number of American cities:

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Nineteen people were killed in Chicago last month, which is the fewest murders the Windy City has experienced during any April since 1962. In Baltimore, there were just five murders in April—the lowest number in any month since 1970. Three other major cities—Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Detroit—recorded their fewest first-quarter homicides since the 1960s.

Criminologists tend to speak in caveats, with warning of reversion to the mean and admonitions to wait for better data, but even they must admit: These are some eye-catching numbers. “It’s really encouraging,” said John Roman, a crime researcher at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. “It’s worth taking a moment and noting that we are approaching the numbers in most crime statistics we haven’t seen since the 1960s. In these cities, if you’re under 55, this is probably the safest moment you’ve ever lived in. That’s great, and it should be celebrated.”

The early 2025 crime decline builds off numbers from 2023 and 2024 and appears to include not just homicide but also robberies, rapes, burglaries, and auto theft. In many respects, we are returning to a pre-COVID world of public safety, with profound implications for residents of neighborhoods tormented by gun violence, the police who are supposed to solve the problem, and the politicians who love to campaign on the issue.

For decades, many Americans have associated big cities with crime. This can be in comparison to the settings in which they live – and a slight majority of the country is suburban – and can persist despite fluctuations in the actual crime rate.

But this is also connected to long-standing anti-urban sentiments. In a country that idealizes small-town life and where many love the suburbs, cities can look unappealing. Any reports on crime – whether crime is up or down – could feed into this broader narrative.

This goes beyond politicians trying to make political points by playing up particular issues cities face. How about the media and how it reports crime? How about the ways Americans perceive safety? How about police? And so on. There are facts about crime and perceptions about crime. For a long time, Americans have connected crime to cities. It might take a long downturn in crime for that connection to be broken.

Weird repeat occurrences in the Chicago suburbs: guns in cars at Naperville Topgolf, trucks hitting Long Grove covered bridge

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Follow the news in the Chicago suburbs and it seems two stories come up pretty reliably.

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First, the Topgolf facility in Naperville now has had 22 gun arrests in the last two years:

For the third time in less than two weeks, police have made a firearm-related arrest in the Naperville Topgolf parking lot…

Coffey’s arrest brings the number of firearm-related arrests made outside the Naperville Topgolf since August 2023 to 22…

Officers were in the business’ parking lot in squad cars when one of them observed Coffey exiting a white Mercedes SUV while smoking what they believed to be cannabis, Krakow said. Officers exited their squads and approached on foot. Their investigation into the cannabis led to a search of Coffey’s vehicle.

Police’s search yielded a 9mm handgun that was recovered from a backpack, Krakow said.

How many more times will this happen? Naperville is a wealthy and high status suburb.

Second, a covered bridge in Long Grove keeps getting hit by trucks. It just happened again earlier this week:

Once again, a box truck became stuck under Long Grove’s iconic covered bridge early Monday morning, with the vehicle taking the brunt of the damage.

“The vast majority of the times this happens, it damages the vehicle,” Long Grove Assistant Village Manager Dana McCarthy said. “The bridge is made of heavy duty steel.”…

Though the bridge has certainly been hit well over 50 times since it reopened in 2020 after an extensive renovation, the village itself doesn’t keep count of the instances.

If this happened a few times, it could be a pattern in suburbs where these things tend not to happen. “Strange but true” stories from the suburbs that happen a few times.

But now people are paying attention – both of these occurrences are now “common” – and they keep happening. The media widely reports on the police work at Topgolf yet more arrests are made? There are plenty of warnings around the bridge about the height but trucks keep trying to drive through?

I assume the phenomena will end at some point but it is hard to know when.

    Searching through millions of paper records of guns, modern crime fighting, and large scale societies

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    Key to identifying the man who shot at Donald Trump was a large set of paper records:

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    Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives analysts at a facility in West Virginia search through millions of documents by hand every day to try to identify the provenance of guns used in crimes. Typically, the bureau takes around eight days to track a weapon, though for urgent traces that average falls to 24 hours…

    In an era of high-tech evidence gathering, including location data and a trove of evidence from cell phones and other electronic devices used by shooting suspects, ATF agents have to search through paper records to find a gun’s history.

    In some cases, those records have even been kept on microfiche or were held in shipping containers, sources told CNN, especially for some of the closed business records like in this case.

    The outdated records-keeping system stems from congressional laws that prohibit the ATF from creating searchable digital records, in part because gun rights groups for years have fanned fears that the ATF could create a database of firearm owners and that it could eventually lead to confiscation.

    But the urgent ATF trace Saturday proved indispensable in identifying the Pennsylvania shooter, giving authorities a key clue toward his identity in less than half an hour.

    On one hand, searching through paper records could appear to be inefficient in the third decade of the twenty-first century. In today’s large-scale societies and systems, the ability to quickly search and retrieve digital records is essential in numerous social and economic sectors.

    On the other hand, a large set of paper records is a reminder of the relatively recent shift humans have made to adjust to large populations, and in this case, specifically addressing crime. I recently read The Infernal Machine, a story about dynamite, anarchists at the turn of the twentieth century, and developing police efforts to address the threat of political violence. These changes included systems of records to identify suspects, such as having fingerprints or photos on file.

    More broadly, the development of databases and filing systems helped people and institutions keep up with the data they wanted to collect and access. To do fairly basic things in our current world, from getting a driver’s license to voting to accessing health care, requires large databases.