L.A. business improvement districts have helped create significant economic development in some cases and also have played a role in fighting crime.

That’s one of the findings of a recent Rand Corp. study, which said that robbery and violent crime dropped by an average of 12 percent and 8 percent, respectively, across the 30 BIDs that were formed in Los Angeles between 1995 and 2003.

There are 37 BIDs located in the city of Los Angeles, with an additional 19 proposed, according to the city clerk’s Web site. There are more than 55 BIDs in the county. The Business Journal’s List on Page 19 ranks the 25 largest.

Creation of the districts was spurred by a 1994 law that allows cities and counties to authorize their formation. BIDS are funded by assessments of property owners or merchants in a defined neighborhood, and the money is used to improve that neighborhood.

The Rand report, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s criminology department, found that since “the connection between economic development and crime at the local level is well established,” the decrease in crime rates “aren’t likely to have occurred by chance alone.”

Steve Gibson, president of BID consultancy Urban Place Consulting Group Inc. in Long Beach and manager of both the North Hollywood and Figueroa Corridor BIDs, said most districts focus on security and maintenance, or “clean and safe” initiatives, bringing in “ambassadors” a friendlier term for guards.

For some of L.A.’s districts, especially those in downtown, homelessness is an overriding problem precluding economic development.

“Central City East and Downtown Center BIDs have been creative and put effort into understanding and dealing with the homeless issue,” said Gibson, who has helped establish BIDs all over the United States.

In 2002, Central City East Association, which manages the Arts, Toy and Industrial business districts where Skid Row is located, started providing bins in a warehouse, creating a “check-in center” where the homeless can keep their belongings.

“We’re the homeless capital of the United States so we have to find ways to reduce the tension between the homeless and people trying to operate a business,” said Estela Lopez, executive director of the association. “The check-in center is one way. We also remove abandoned personal property that may impede the flow of customers into businesses.”

Lopez said the cleanup efforts, security guards and increased police presence have led to business owners, employees and customers reporting they feel much safer in the last couple of years.

One L.A. area that has seen a dramatic change in crime rates and economic development since the establishment of a BID is the Hollywood Entertainment District.

Since 1996, when that BID was created, the area, which had been run down, and plagued with drugs and prostitution, has been transformed by the opening of restaurants and national retailers.

“The No. 1 reason the BID was formed was to fund a private security presence,” said Kerry Morrison, executive director of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, which manages the BID. “Business owners knew their dreams of revitalization wouldn’t be realized unless people felt safe coming here.”