On Jan. 7, 2005, when law enforcement officials announced the retirement of the 34-year-old Crime Check number – (509) 456-2233 – they played down the significance. They didn’t hang up on Crime Check entirely. They introduced a new number and a new name, Spokane Crime Reporting Center, and they shortened the center’s hours. Budget times were tough, and the 24-hour service seemed less important than retaining property-crime detectives.

Law enforcement officials thought it was the right thing to do. It wasn’t.

Indeed, they saved money by diminishing the scope of the former Crime Check. But they lost a lot of goodwill. And they lost important citizen-law enforcement contact.

In 2003, Crime Check received 274,000 calls and generated 47,000 crime reports. Some of the calls had no relation to crime. My parrot is injured. My dog is lost. Is it snowing on the pass? But at least citizens knew there was a trusted number they could call.

Last week, Spokane County commissioners voted unanimously to let voters decide in November whether they’ll resurrect Crime Check by paying a one-tenth-of-a-percent sales tax. The old number would be restored, and Crime Check would be a 24-hour service once more. Whether voters approve this funding proposal, or whether it’s even the best way to pay for Crime Check, remains to be seen.

But the lessons learned from the dismantling of Crime Check should stay in the collective memory of city and county officials.

For instance, don’t mess with steeped-in-tradition civic programs that work. Crime Check was born Nov. 19, 1970, to further “citizen involvement and support for law enforcement.” Citizens put the number on their refrigerators and memorized it. When the program was diminished and the number changed, calls plummeted. Police agencies lost a valuable source of front-line information.

And they lost citizen confidence that police and elected officials gave a hoot about minor crimes. In 1982, two sociologists pioneered the “broken window” thesis of safe communities. When cities pay attention to the smaller stuff – for instance, repair vandalized windows and paint over graffiti – citizens feel safer and will be more likely to support bigger public safety efforts, such as additional police officers.

When vandals run over a neighbor’s ceramic garden parrot or steal a flag off a porch, these are not major crimes. But the acts still violate a person’s sense of safety. With Crime Check back on the line 24/7, citizens should feel once again that someone cares enough to listen.