Community Research Inc. Records

With the rise of the commuter suburbs and the decline of the old central business districts, many cities in the United States fell victim to urban decay and blight in the period after World War II. Many major urban centers during this time saw the focal center of their cities as breeding grounds for vice among the lower strata of society that had come to replace the middle and upper classes that had left the central city for the safety of the suburbs. Many civic leaders watched the decline of the central cities, many felt that the only solution was to eradicate the problem at its source, and thus created programs of urban renewal. However, in an attempt to rid their cities of vice and the lower elements of society, often whole districts within the city that had fallen into decay, also fell victim to the wrecking ball. This in turn merely forced the unwanted parts of society to relocate to another area within the fringes of the old central city. It was in this context that Community Research Inc., was formed in Dayton, Ohio.

Originally called Metropolitan Community Studies, Inc., the organization was formed in 1957 by a group of Dayton area citizens to study the people, the governments and the problems of Metropolitan Dayton. The name of the organization was changed to Community Research Inc. in May of 1960. The first study produced by the organization occurred in 1959, and was entitled "Metropolitan Challenge." Because Community Research Inc. was founded as a non-profit, tax exempt, independent agency, it was able to solicit support for further reports. (Most of the agency's operating budget was obtained from a variety of sources, such as local companies, foundations and private individuals.) Subsequent reports covered a wide range of subjects. However, the initial concern was primarily local government problems. Its focus broadened over time, though, to include a wide variety of urban problems, including alcohol and drugs, and the renewal of Downtown Dayton.

In August 1970, the Dayton-Montgomery County Project was launched through the offices of Community Research Inc. after the area requested and qualified for a Pilot Cities designation. The history of the Pilot Cities Project can be traced to the Congressional and Presidential Crime Commission Studies of the early 1960s, which surveyed the causes of crime and delinquency. These studies made recommendations for operational and policy changes in city governments and in criminal justice agencies. These recommendations ran from improving policy equipment to de-emphasizing traditional police approaches to crime and disorder in favor of tactics and techniques designed to identify and control causes of crime. Other recommendations included improving the process of prosecution, adjudication and rehabilitation and developing alternatives to the courts and corrections components of the criminal justice system. In all cases, the recommendations urged using a wider array of community resources by increasing the understanding of and involvement by the community in the problems and challenges of the criminal justice system.

Most of these recommendations, however, were theories - untries, untested, and unproven. To implement them would require experimentation and financing. Consequently, Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Omnibus Safe Street Act in 1968. The act created within the Justice Department the LEAA, whose purpose was to provide motivation for local communities to implement new programs by utilizing Federal funds. The LEAA then created within itself the Pilot Cities Project to be established in ten metropolitan areas across the country where local officials were supportive enough and criminal justice agencies creative enough to try a coordinated approach to many of the recommendations. Pilot Cities was to be a five-year project to assist these areas in developing innovative, criminal justice programs for the purpose of demonstrating the applicability of these concepts for criminal justice agencies throughout the country.

The Dayton Police department and other criminal justice agencies, on both the city and county levels, indicated a desire to test recommendations that might improve their operations and functioning of the criminal justice system. Thus, Community Research and the City of Dayton and its agencies became a part of the Pilot Cities program from 1970 until its final phase in 1975.