Crime Pays
Radio Diaries
Radio Diaries & Radiotopia
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2015
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This month’s podcast is about what it takes to get people to change. We focus on a group of people that might be the hardest to change – or at least they’ve had the most money thrown at them in hopes of change: Criminals.
Back in 2006, Richmond, CA was named the ninth most dangerous city in the country, with 42 murders for a population of about 100,000. Then they brought in a new police chief and started doing all kinds of things differently. And it worked. Homicides are now a third of what they were. Crime has dropped in a way that is dramatic and impressive. And police say that one of the things that helped is a program called the Office of Neighborhood Safety, or ONS. That’s a bland name for what is actually a very unusual program with one particular tactic that you do not hear about people trying very often: paying criminals to not commit crimes. Sounds crazy, but the even crazier part is…it works.
This story originally aired on This American Life, in the episode, The Incredible Rarity of Changing Your Mind. Thanks to Ira Glass and the entire staff of This American Life for their help on this story.
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| 0:00.0 | Radiotopia |
| 0:02.0 | From PRX |
| 0:05.0 | From PRX's Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries. |
| 0:08.0 | I'm Joe Richmond. |
| 0:09.0 | Today we're bringing you a story we originally produced for this American life. |
| 0:13.0 | Maybe you've heard of that show. |
| 0:15.0 | The theme of the episode was the rarity of changing your mind. |
| 0:18.0 | And our story today looks at a group of people that might be the |
| 0:21.6 | hardest to change, or at least they've had the most money thrown at them in hopes of change. |
| 0:26.5 | Criminals. Our story takes place in Richmond, California. It's right across the bay from San |
| 0:31.5 | Francisco. And it's been a pretty violent place. A quick illustration of that. This is the city's |
| 0:37.2 | police chief, Chris Magnus, |
| 0:38.8 | at a press conference, holding up a cell phone to play a recording made at 11 o'clock at night in |
| 0:43.8 | Richmond. He starts to put the cell phone down, then realizes it's not over. |
| 0:59.0 | Back in 2006, Richmond was named the ninth most dangerous city in the country, with 42 |
| 1:04.3 | murders for a population of about 100,000. |
| 1:07.7 | Then they brought in a new police chief and started doing all kinds of things differently, |
| 1:12.0 | and it worked. |
| 1:14.2 | Homicides are now a third of what they were. |
| 1:17.2 | Crime is dropped in a way that is dramatic and impressive. |
| 1:21.8 | And police say that one of the things that helped is a program called the Office of Neighborhood Safety, or ONS. |
| 1:23.8 | That's a bland name for what is actually a very unusual program, with one particular tactic |
... |
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