Show zero tolerance to brazen fare-dodgers and shoplifters in Cork

I’ve been thinking a lot about The Broken Window Theory of law and order lately.

It comes to mind every time I watch RTÉ’s Crimecall, and look on aghast while the most brazen crooks imaginable simply walk into a supermarket, or drive into a petrol forecourt, take what they like, and head off without paying. Many of them don’t evem bother to hide their identity.

I thought of the theory again this week, when figures on fare dodging on public transport in Cork were released, and revealed that more than 7% of bus engers last year had no valid ticket.

Crimes like these are often viewed as petty and victimless - small-time stuff committed by chancers.

And after all, the supermarkets and oil giants can afford to lose a few euro here and there while they rack up massive profits, can’t they? Sure, the large shops even factor the cost of shoplifting into their s.

While fare dodgers are only wheedling their way out of paying a euro or two, aren’t they, the cheeky scamps?

Well, every crime does have a victim, and in these cases, it is the law-abiding folk, like you and I, who have to pay more at the tills, at the pumps, and on buses and trains, to subsidise the ones who think that life owes them a free , and they can take what they like.

The damage caused by such visible, brazen crimes goes much deeper than that.

This is where The Broken Window Theory comes into play.

It states that if a society allows small signs of disorder and crime (such as broken windows) to go unchecked, it can lead to a decline in the neighbourhood, and encourage further criminal activity, including more serious crimes.

In essence, the theory suggests that maintaining a clean, orderly, and crime-free environment needs to start at the bottom, with the low-hanging fruit.

Show zero tolerance to the shop-lifters and fare dodgers, and you will go a long way to curtailing all crimes.

But are we doing that at present?

Do stores employ enough people to keep tabs on the shoplifters?

Do the gardaí follow up petty crimes, such as drivers who fill up their tank with petrol and speed off, with the full rigour of the law?

Are the fines for fare dodgers enough of a deterrent?

And are the courts doing their utmost to curb these crimes, or are they a soft touch - allowing culprits to think that they can keep repeat offending and, sure, the worst they will get each time is a slip on the wrist.

I would suggest not. Reading some court reports where dozens of previous convictions are listed would back up this thinking.

All of these petty crimes I mentioned tend to be pre-planned.

You don’t just walk into a supermarket and decide on the spot that you will walk out the door pushing your trolley of free goods to your car.

You don’t just glide into a service station and think while you’re filling up your tank: ‘Hmm, I think I’ll head off out the gap there’.

And most fare dodgers have decided to take a free ride before they board a bus or train.

All of these people have done a simple equation in their heads: Will I get caught here? And if I do, what will happen to me?

If their internal answers to these questions are,

a: Highly unlikely, and

b: Not much at all,

then we, and society, have a problem.

Plus once they get away with it once, it becomes easier the next time. and even habit-forming.

The figures on fare dodging this week made sobering reading.

Nearly €3,000 worth of unpaid bus and train fares were detected in Cork last year, and the National Transport Authority figures showed that 7.5% of engers checked by ticket inspectors on Cork buses did not have a ticket. Figures on some routes show the percentage was as high as 65%.

Among the worst offenders was the 206 Grange to South Mall route, where 33 of 82 engers checked had no tickets, an evasion rate of 40%.

In 40% of cases, people caught for fare evading were found not to have a ticket at all, while 57% were noted to be ‘over-riding’, meaning they were travelling further than the stop they had told the driver they would be getting off at and had paid for.

The standard penalty fine for those not in possession of a valid ticket is €100. I can’t be the one who thinks that’s too low.

Plus, if a person receives a fine and pays a standard fare within 21 days of issue, this fine falls to just €50.

Using The Broken Window Theory, a fine of perhaps €500, with no reductions, might make the offenders think twice. This fine should be doubled to €1,000 for anyone repeat offending.

Under the zero tolerance theory, anyone not paying a fine quickly would then be jailed.

This might all seem Draconian, but lookit: Do we want to curb criminality at source or not?

Such hardline policing and justice is often portrayed as ‘right-wing’, but there really shoudn’t be anything political or controversial in wanting to curb crime - and the theory that cracking down on the petty and visible stuff will prevent more serious crimes seems a watertight one.

The theory suggests if one window is allowed to remain broken, another one nearby will soon be broken too, so you fix the original broken window quickly, and do all you can to find the initial culprit before the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ scenario kicks in.

It’s a similar thought process to litter - nobody drops it on a pristine street, but on a street full of it, the number of litter-bugs multiplies.

The theory doesn’t just work for vandalism, litter, and graffiti - it can work to prevent petty crimes too.

If a non-criminal sees widespread shoplifting and fare evading in their daily life, and the criminals are getting way with it, their mindset may soon change to embrace the criminality as well.

If the criminality is not happening, or the people doing it are regulaely caught and also face hefty penalties, then the problem is nipped in the bud.

The Broken Window Theory is best known for having a dramatic impact on crime in New York in the early 1990s, when transport police implemented it to tackle the endemic fare dodging.

The results are much-debated, but there is no doubt that minor crimes plummeted under the system.

It’s surely worth a try here.