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HIGH POINT -- U.S. cities typically look to reduce neighborhood crime by putting offenders behind bars. However, for more than a decade the City of High Point has employed a strategy officials say has proven far more successful at making neighborhoods safe.

"There was a lot of prostitution, people walking down the street selling dope," said Mike Taylor, who has lived in High Point's West End neighborhood for several years.

Taylor paints an ugly picture of the neighborhood as it was when he moved there. Police say the neighborhood now bears little resemblance.

"Today, it looks like most any neighborhood in High Point,” said Deputy Chief Marty Sumner. “You don't see those things. You see people out doing things they want to. They now own the public spaces again."

Sumner credits a strategy called “focused deterrence policing,” conceived by John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor David Kennedy. Known drug dealers, prostitutes and violent offenders are contacted and given a choice of going to a meeting with police and community members or, almost certainly, going to jail .

“We tell them how it's going to be,” said Jim Summey, executive director of High Point Community Against Violence. “If they go back out and they live right and do right they win and the community wins."

The meeting is an intervention, which brings the offender face to face with anyone and everyone who might influence the offender's behavior.

"We didn't leave anything out,” said Sumner. “It was the authoritative, the police say 'no.' The community, more a voice at large saying this is wrong. The people who are influential and meaningful to these guys, saying I don't want you to do that any more."

Summey said the approach had reduced the rate of re-offense among those who attend the meetings to about 10 percent compared to 53 percent statewide. And more importantly, it had saved lives.

"It's just been an attrition that's taken place,” he said. “A change in this whole community because of the work that's going on behind the scenes with the police, probation department and the citizens dedicated to this cause. And all I can say is I sure am glad we're able to do it."

Sumner said his department had helped train two dozen police departments across the country in the use of the strategy. The cities include Providence, R.I., Nashville, Tenn. and Rockford, Ill.