OPINION

Looking to faith as part of the crime solution

Russ Pulliam

Steve Goldsmith never called a prayer rally against crime on Monument Circle when he was mayor in the 1990s.

But last Sunday’s Hope for the City Celebration, a rally organized by a coalition of a dozen churches called City Mosaic and the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety, echoes Goldsmith’s mayoral pleas for churches to help resolve hard social problems.

The prayer gathering on the Circle represented a grass-roots attempt by churches to tackle the spiritual and social roots of crime. City Mosaic started out of the large Northview Church in Carmel, to build partnerships between inner city and suburban churches. It fits well with how Public Safety Director Troy Riggs and Police Chief Rick Hite argue that police alone cannot stop crime.

Goldsmith’s approach was similar. He used his office as a bully pulpit to exhort churches and other nonprofits to new levels of service. As a three-term Marion County prosectuor, he sent more criminals to prison than anyone in state history. Realizing he could not lock up bad guys forever, he searched for private sector help. The practical result was called the Front Porch Alliance, which connected churches and neighborhood groups with city government. Another result was the Ten Point Coalition, independent of city government but engaging churches and faith-based groups to prevent crime.

Goldsmith’s assumption was libertarian conservative — government can’t do much to restore broken famillies or stop the drug and alcohol abuse connected with so much crime.

The result was smaller city government and lower taxes under Goldsmith, mixed with energized churches that felt new confidence and duty to help people in need.

One difference between then and now: Goldsmith didn’t face a massive boost in crime. In contrast Riggs and Hite are looking at an alarming boom in the city’s homicide rate.

Bill Stanczykiewicz was a top aide to Goldsmith and now runs Indiana Youth Institute. He sees one similarity between then and now. “Steve Goldsmith and Troy Riggs are similar in that they are so focused on results,” he said. “They look very hard for ways to stop crime, because the problems are so great.”

Goldsmith, who teaches at Harvard, agrees that law enforcement can’t do it all. “The cost of crime has to succeed the benefits,” he said in an interview. “But you can’t make the community safe just by force. You need the glue of neighborhood groups, community values and religion to hold it all together.”

When it comes to crime, Riggs, Hite and Goldsmith are dedicated to numbers and crime statistics and zip codes. Goldsmith even has a new book, “The Responsive City,” about using data and technology to make cities better. But crime has a way of moving people to consider how faith and prayer might be part of the solution, too.

Pulliam is associate editor of The Star. Email him at russell.pulliam@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @rbpulliam.