Outdoor Lighting and Crime - Amper

ank of the river] has increasingly been the site of criminal activity in the
Melbourne CBD. [Southbank has been developed as a tourist, casino and
entertainment area. It includes outdoor gas flame balls that occasionally burn
unfortunate pigeons and seagulls. Public and commercial lighting in the area
underwent a great expansion in the years following 1995.] The number of offences
committed in the Southbank area increased by nearly 600 per cent between 1995 and
2000… Docklands [a large downstream area, formerly dimly lit or unlit] is the
location of only 0.4 per cent of all recorded crime in the Melbourne CBD, which is
perhaps to be expected given that it is a relatively undeveloped area at present.”
The Victorian government is encouraging the development of Docklands. This includes a
requirement that a fixed percentage of development expenditure has to be spent on
beautifying the area. A substantial part of this expenditure seems to be going into decorative
lighting (eg upwardly aimed floodlighting of trees, buildings and structures, light pattern
projection onto silos), which appears likely to bring its own unforeseen consequences in the
form of more crime in due course. Vicpol (2002b) data for Docklands gives crime numbers
from 1997-1998 to 2001-2002 as 29, 54, 102, 163 and 157. In the normal course of events,
attempts to stem this unpleasant trend would include putting in even more lights.
5.6.2.2 Serious drugs crime
DCPC (2001) includes figures showing street numbers recorded by police in cases of serious
drugs offences in Melbourne’s Bourke and Russell Streets for each year from 1995 to 2000.
These intersecting streets are two of fourteen major streets that run the length and breadth of
the rectangular central city grid. Together these two streets had 1196 serious drugs crime
arrests, 75 about 56% of the city’s total, for years 1995 through 2000. Unfortunately, in only
18.2% of these cases did police record the nearest street number. Regardless, the available
street number information does indicate the existence of hotspots for drugs crime, with some
progressive movement as well as occasional abrupt changes taking place from year to year.
The street numbers data for serious drugs crime in 2000 from DCPC (2001) are redrawn in
Figures 15 and 16. The total number of cases represented is unknown, but is estimated by
linear proportion without growth to be about 40 for the year. 76 This is more than the total of
32 arrest locations shown in Figures 15 and 16, viz 19 + 13. It is likely to be more than 40
given that growth in drugs crime has caused much public concern. Some of the triangle
symbols in the figures are therefore highly likely to represent locations of multiple arrests.
The July 2002 values of horizontal plane illuminance along the streets are included. 77 Note
75 ‘Serious’ means cultivation, possession of commercial quantities or trafficking.
76 The writer made a detailed request to the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee for the
actual street numbers and numbers of arrests at each. Months and several follow-ups later, the
reply stated that there was no authority to release such data. No response at all was received
when the requests were redirected to the Victoria Police as suggested.
77 The photometric survey of Bourke and Russell Streets was done by the writer between 8-
30 pm and 10-15 pm in dry conditions on a Monday night, 2002-07-01, with some checks and
supplementary measurements between 11-15 pm and 12-45 am nine days later. Five
approximately equally spaced measurements were made along the middle of the footpaths of
each block on each side of the streets, and the nearest street number was noted for each
89