After years of struggling against the cut-rate Chinese bicycles that set the price target guiding Walmart, Huffy essentially had become a Chinese-owned company. Today, the design, product development and marketing for Huffy is based in Dayton, Ohio. Crown Equipment Corporation now uses the former Huffy U.S. bicycle factory in Celina, Ohio, to produce forklifts. Proponents of risk scores argue they can be used to reduce the rate of incarceration.
Also last year, Sensor Technology Systems Inc. said its move from Beavercreek would result in 120 jobs. Companies relocating to the Newmark Office Park area have included Acclimate Technologies Inc., which tripled its size after from downtown Dayton. Late last year, Verso Corp. announced the Memphis-based company was moving its headquarters to that area as well in a move local officials would stabilize more than 200 jobs. Huffy can trace its roots in Dayton back 125 years, to when produced its first bicycle in Dayton in 1892 while originally operating as the Davis Sewing Machine Company.
1982– Harry A. Shaw III was appointed as CEO of theHuffy Corporation. He immediately began to close plants and make major staff cutbacks. He then went on to consolidate all the bike manufacturing operations into the Celina plant.
To combat eroding profit margins, Huffy planned to further reduce costs and to eliminate excess production capacity, while developing a more competitive mix of domestic and non-domestic products. For Huffy to maintain its leadership in the industry during the 21st century, much depended on the company’s success in overcoming the challenges presented by its overseas competitors. Prior to the recession, foreign competition was also putting pressure on U.S. bike makers. In 1972 foreign imports accounted for 37 percent of the U.S. market. The devalued U.S. dollar, however, cut this share to 15 percent by the end of the 1970s. New federal regulations setting safety standards for bicycles also cut into the sale of foreign models.
Brennan wanted to improve on a leading risk assessment score, the LSI, or Level of Service Inventory, which had been developed in Canada. “I found a fair amount of weakness in the LSI,” Brennan said. He wanted a tool that addressed the major theories about the causes of crime. In some jurisdictions, such as Napa County, California, the probation department uses risk assessments to suggest to the judge an appropriate probation or treatment plan for individuals being sentenced. Napa County Superior Court Judge Mark Boessenecker said he finds the recommendations helpful. “We have a dearth of good treatment programs, so filling a slot in a program with someone who doesn’t need it is foolish,” he said.
After Rivelli stole from a CVS and was caught with heroin in his car, he was rated a low risk. In theory, judges are not supposed to give longer sentences to defendants with higher risk scores. Rather, they are supposed to use the tests primarily to determine which defendants are eligible for probation or treatment programs. In 2009, Brennan and two colleagues published a validation study that found that Northpointe’s risk of recidivism score had an accuracy rate of 68 percent in a sample of 2,328 people. Their study also found that the score was slightly less predictive for black men than white men — 67 percent versus 69 percent. It did not examine racial disparities beyond that, including whether some groups were more likely to be wrongly labeled higher risk.
The worst period for Huffy arrived in 1995, when the company recorded a crippling $10.5 million loss. For the remainder of the decade, Huffy management devoted itself to curing the ills that led to the devastating loss and implementing measures to ensure that it never happened again. As Huffy exited the 1990s, it continued to pursue the strategy of paring away assets, acquiring new properties, and entering new business areas. In 1998, the company’s Washington Inventory Service subsidiary acquired Denver, Colorado-based Inventory Auditors, Inc., with 42 offices operating in 23 states. The acquisition greatly strengthened Washington Inventory Service’s position in its industry, since Inventory Auditors ranked third in the industry.
Statistics in the 1990s pointed to a fiercely competitive global market for bike manufacturers in the 21st century, auguring a continuation of the battle between Huffy and foreign competitors in the future. Between 1994 and 1998, comparable retail bike prices dropped 25 percent in the huffy beach cruiser United States largely because of the wave of foreign imports, plunging ten percent in 1997 alone. In 1997 nearly 60 percent of the bikes purchased in the United States were produced by foreign manufacturers who incurred significantly lower production costs than U.S. manufacturers.
1970sSaw the introduction of mass merchandise retail chains that stocked large quantities of consumer goods and sold them at discount prices. This provided them with an opportunity for up a new market for bike sales.huffy bicyclesdeveloped a ten-speed that required the bare minimum of assembly and service. She also said judges in nearly all New York counties are given defendants’ Northpointe assessments during sentencing.
A few of the most popular models included the Special Roadster, the Racer, the LaFrance, and the Streamliner. “We literally sat there and cried” the whole time they were in jail, Jones recalled. Otherwise, Jones said, “I would have gone crazy.” Borden declined repeated requests to comment for this article. Hurley said he has no recollection of the case and cannot recall if the scores influenced his decision. However, in the case of Borden and her friend Sade Jones, the teenage girls who stole a kid’s bike and scooter, Hurley raised the bond amount for each girl from the recommended $0 to $1,000 each. Like others, they did not examine whether different races were classified differently as low or high risk.