ABSTRACT
In 2007, police officials in Rockford, Illinois, decided to take a very different approach to addressing its open-air drug markets and the neighborhoods negatively affected by the drug markets. The approach was data driven. Specifically, it built on a promising practice developed in High Point, North Carolina, it included a problem analysis of the drug market in Rockford, and it included an assessment of the impact of the intervention. It involved partnerships between the police, federal and local prosecutors, social services, key community leaders, local residents, and the business community. Finally, it was a highly focused intervention. Rather than addressing all drug sale activity in the city, the decision was to focus initially on one specific market in a particular neighborhood. If this intervention proved successful then the plan was to move to a second drug market. Given this, the Rockford drug market intervention represented the central characteristics of the New Criminal Justice.
