CLEVELAND, Ohio – Does a power outage make you more likely to become a victim of crime?
That’s the question on the minds of many people in Northeast Ohio who are struggling with power and internet outages following this week’s storms.
The storms included two tornadoes and a 90-mph wind gust that left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power. Power has already been restored in some cases, but as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday, more than a quarter of a million FirstEnergy Corp. customers were still in the dark.
The general belief is that criminals take advantage of malfunctioning security systems, surveillance cameras and street lights to commit crimes.
A 2023 review published in the journal Academic Research Letters examined 50 scientific articles on the social impacts of power outages and found that while old studies found an increase in crime during power outages, more recent studies do not support this conclusion.
In fact, recent studies have shown that people are more willing to help their fellow human beings than to steal from them, says Adam Andresen, one of the study’s co-authors and an employee of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center.
“There is a feeling that there will be crime and chaos, but that is not what we are seeing,” Andresen said.
“Disasters often bring out the best in humanity,” Andresen said.
Daniel Flannery, director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at Case Western Reserve University, said the answer to whether crime is increasing depends on how it is measured and whether crimes are reported.
On the one hand, it is often assumed that stress factors increase crime overall, Flannery said. And he shared the assessment that old studies had found an increase in crime after disasters, but more recent studies had not found a significant increase in crime after disasters.
Crime is also a very personal matter, Flannery said. Although crime is often measured as an aggregate, disasters affect each person differently, so their responses often vary, he said.
“It’s just not that simple,” Flannery said.
When speaking to law enforcement officials, opinions differ as to whether crime increases during power outages.
Tom Wetzel, police chief of University Circle and a police officer for 37 years, said he has not observed a significant increase in crime following power outages.
“People generally tend to stick together in situations like this, you know, neighbors helping neighbors,” Wetzel said.
Because many people have to spend more time outdoors due to the power outages, they are also paying more attention to their neighborhoods than usual, Wetzel said.
“Ironically, it could have a deterrent effect,” Wetzel said.
“From a police perspective, we are very vigilant in these times because many people are at risk,” said Wetzel.
Euclid police Capt. Mitch Houser told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that there has been no increase in crime in recent days. It’s hard to say whether the blackouts have had a significant impact on crime in the city because extended outages are rare in the area, he said. Instead of an increase in crime, Houser said police are seeing more people coming together and looking out for each other.
“I am proud of the coming together of our citizens,” Houser said.
Pete Elliott, U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, who has worked for the feds since 1987, says some people see opportunity in others’ misfortune. Elliott’s office pursues the worst of the worst: people accused of violent crimes who are fugitives from justice.
In his view, “criminal actors could take advantage of this,” Elliott said.
