Roland Smith, left, with the St. Louis County problem properties unit, and Devin Grant secure mural boards to a vacant home on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, in the 10000 block of Duke Drive in the Castle Point neighborhood of St. Louis County. The work on the boards are by young local artists. A neighborhood committee used a federal grant to beautify the area, which has more than 300 vacant homes.

A half-square-mile neighborhood in north St. Louis County, long riddled with violence, is now the frontier of crime prevention: A group of residents, researchers and cops are experimenting with crime-fighting tools — from painting murals to cleaning up vacant lots to installing street lights — and then tracking how those steps reduce crime.

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