DA: CRIME RATE HAS DECREASED 50%

Decrease due to citizens reporting, preventing more crime, Carlton says The
Leflore County crime rate has decreased almost 50 percent over the past
year, largely because of citizens who are reporting and preventing crimes,
said District Attorney Frank Carlton.

Other initiatives such as police intervention and rehabilitation programs
are helping too, he said.

Traditionally, Carlton's hometown of Greenville and Washington County have
more crime than Leflore County, he told the Greenwood Voters League
Wednesday night. "The last couple of years you've been catching up, but I
bring you good news: This year so far, as opposed to this time last year,
there has been a decrease in crime across the board in Leflore County."

The district attorney calculates that total crimes have decreased by about
46 percent, from 395 last year to 211 this year.

Of that figure, crimes involving narcotics have seen the biggest drop at 72
percent. Violent crimes fell 44 percent, and property crimes - such as
larceny, perjury and arson - are down 12 percent.

Those figures are derived from grand jury indictments, not from arrests,
convictions or crime reports.

"That's a healthy decrease," said Carlton. "I hope you can hang on to that."

He attributed the relatively calm spell to good law enforcement and citizen
initiative. "I think I'm looking at a good portion of the reason," he told
the league. "I think the citizens of Leflore County have gotten involved in
the judicial system and crime prevention."

Police are also doing a better job of intervening on street corners where
they suspect drug activity, he said.

Diversion programs that work to rehabilitate, rather than incarcerate,
non-violent offenders are also preserving lives that would otherwise be
spent in prison and saving the state the money spent keeping them there,
Carlton said.

He lauded the new drug court program headed by the district's four circuit
court judges. The program, one of three in Mississippi, sends addicts who
commit drug-related felonies to a 45-day residential treatment program, one
in Greenwood and another in Greenville. Afterwards, they have to check in
weekly with the court. Those who stay clean come away with a clean record.
Those who fail are convicted of a felony and serve their sentence.

Combating addiction is a tough task, Carlton said, but worth the effort for
those who should get another chance. "When someone is sent to the pen, that
tells you the system has failed."

Carlton started another diversion program about 15 years ago that spares
the records of those non-violent offenders who show "good character and a
willingness to get along in society."

Still, not everyone should get off without spending time behind bars, he
said. "I'm well aware that there are some evil people out there. I have no
sympathy for child abusers. ... Many a person out there needs to be in the
pen. I'm not foolish enough to say no one belongs there."

More can be done, however, to prevent to crime, according to Carlton. He
said it pains him especially that some elderly citizens are afraid of law
enforcement. Others, he said, fear retaliation if they turn someone in.
Those who bar their doors and lock themselves inside afraid of the world
outside their windows are building their own prison, he said.

"If I see something, I'm going to report it."