Evaluation Of Officer And Teacher Next Door Programs

The recently released Officer Next DoorOND) and Teachers Next Door (TND) Program Evaluation,conducted by HUD's Office of Policy Development andResearch (PD&R), provides insights about these and othercompelling questions about the two programs, which werecreated in the late 1990s to strengthen America'scommunities by encouraging law enforcement officers andschool teachers to live in low- and moderate-incomeneighborhoods designated as Revitalization Zones by theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Researchers selected neighborhoods in two cities whereclusters of OND/TND homes could be identified: Rialto,California, and Spokane, Washington. The study examinedcrime levels before the initiation of home sales(calendar year 1999) and after the included homes werepurchased (calendar year 2002). Researchers comparedcrime counts in the cluster parcels to neighborhoods nearclusters and also to crime counts in other geographicareas within the cities and in the cities as whole.

...Although only two OND/TND sites were involved in theevaluation, the findings suggest that when sufficientnumbers of home sales take place in a particularneighborhood, crime levels will be suppressed. Furthervalidation will come with more research in areas wheresimilarly dense concentrations of OND/TND homes can beidentified.