Exploring the Spatial Synergy Between Urban Crime and Public Service Facilities: A Case Study of Los Angeles, USA

Crime incidents represent a critical challenge in urban governance, with their spatial distribution shaped by the urban physical environment and often exhibiting predictable patterns of concentration in specific locales. This study employs the Local Co-location Quotient (LCLQ) and Deep Gravity Model to analyze the spatial relationships between crime incidents and six categories of public service facilities. By identifying zones of high synergy intensity, this research elucidates the underlying mechanisms and establishes definitive correlations between criminal activities and typological public service infrastructure. Through a case study of Los Angeles, key findings include:(1) Facility types have divergent impacts on crime, with transportation arteries and nodes becoming crime hotspots due to the dense passenger flows, while marginal green spaces suffer from safety vulnerabilities caused by insufficient surveillance and environmental concealment, and enclosed spaces with high-frequency activities, like urban CBDs and office districts, also face elevated crime risks. (2) Two distinct distance-decay patterns were identified: a uniform attenuation pattern, which governs the relationships between Crime & Event, Crime & Health and Medicine, and Crime & Community and Government; and a gradually slowing attenuation pattern, which characterizes the interactions between Crime & Travel and Transportation, Crime & Sports and Recreation, and Crime & Arts and Entertainment.3In response to the identified patterns, several spatial strategies are proposed to mitigate crime risks. These include: the strategic installation of surveillance cameras in green spaces and transportation hubs; the decentralized planning of green banks; and the avoidance of high-crime zones when designating sites for large-scale gatherings. This study confirms the spatial interdependence between crime and public service facilities, revealing the systematic logic behind crime rate distributions through functional interaction analysis, thereby providing a robust framework for risk assessment and police resource allocation.