CRIME, POVERTY STATISTICS SHOW PENSACOLA HAS ITS OWN BROWNSVILLE

Residents in West Pensacola are asking the logical question: What
happens if Operation Brownsville pushes criminals and crime into
their neighborhood?

But given the crime and poverty statistics for the area, the better
question might be whether West Pensacola isn't the logical place for
Operation What's Next.

Those statistics are eye-opening, and make us wonder what this sort
of close examination might turn up elsewhere.

Information from the Pensacola Police Department is that 20 percent
of the city's crimes, and 35 percent of its narcotics violations,
take place in neighborhoods west of A Street, even though the area
covers only 5 percent of the city's surface area.

Even if there is some adjustment to be made for population density,
those are startling figures.

If the figures are skewed because, as one police official said, the
police tend to spend a lot of time in the area, the natural question
arises: Why are they there? The answer: Because there is so much crime there?

Reporters looking into the situation get some of the same responses
they get in Brownsville. That includes people scared to walk their
own streets, tales of being approached by drug dealers openly looking
for customers and fears of retaliation from criminals who appear to
think they own the streets.

Police officials say they are increasing patrols in the areas
bordering Brownsville to intercept trouble, and that's good.

But the city should cast a Brownsville-like eye on the situation and
evaluate whether a similar operation is warranted.

Now, maybe it isn't. Maybe there are factors that make it a different
situation than Brownsville.

But poverty certainly is a problem, with a poverty rate in the area
almost three times that of the city as a whole. And a study for the
city found that the area contains 25 percent of the city's
deteriorating structures.

Operation What Next could include a crackdown on code violations, a
concerted effort to develop information from citizens about loiterers
who might be dealing drugs, and about houses and other locations that
might be the site of drug dealing or prostitution, and demolition of
abandoned structures, for a start.

Of course, it will pay off only if there is a plan to keep the
pressure on the criminals and help residents retake their neighborhood.