LOWCOUNTRY SEES DROP IN KILLINGS

Officials Attribute Decrease To Economy, Better Police Work

The number of Lowcountry homicides plummeted last year to its
lowest level in more than a decade, reversing a three-year trend
and confounding authorities who aren't sure what's behind the plunge.

After averaging more than a killing a week in 2003, the region saw its
homicide tally decline by half last year.

Nearly every corner of the Lowcountry saw fewer killings in 2004, with
sizable drops in Charleston and Berkeley counties. Charleston County
had 22 homicides, a four-year low. Berkeley County dropped from 15
slayings in 2003 to two last year, recording its fewest number of
homicides in more than a decade.

It is difficult to say at this point whether 2004 represented a
turning point in the region's efforts to combat violence or just a
brief respite in the bloodshed.

"We've been very fortunate, and obviously we hope to see this trend
continue," said North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt, whose city
recorded six homicides last year, its lowest level in six years.

Area law enforcement officials offered myriad explanations for the
change, from improvements in the economy and the distraction of war in
Iraq to increased drug arrests and more cooperation among police.

The bottom line is, no one is quite sure what caused the
lull.

"If I knew the answer to that, I would get calls from every police
agency in the country wanting me to solve their problems, too," said
Charleston police Lt. Richard Moser.

The city of Charleston led the four-county region in killings last
year, with 10, but that was still a marked decrease from 2003, when
the city had 18 slayings, the most since 1969. The city's homicide
rate dipped from 19 killings per 100,000 people in 2003 to about 10
per 100,000 last year.

Those numbers mean little to people like Latrice Taylor, whose
20-year-old brother Terrell was gunned down March 1 as he stepped from
his family's West Ashley home. His relatives have spent months waiting
for an arrest and trying to console his 2-year-old son when he cries
for his daddy.

"It's been awful," she said. "He was the joy of our lives, I'll tell
you. .. We would give anything to have him back in our lives again."

In all, 29 people were slain in Charleston, Berkeley, Colleton and
Dorchester counties, 29 less than in 2003. The victims ranged in age
from 14 months to 93 years old.

The tally reflects crimes of murder, which is defined by state and
federal officials as the willful, non-negligent killing of a person.
Not included are justifiable homicides, such as people killed by
police officers or by citizens during crimes.

Among the victims was a 2-year-old Summerville boy who died in March
after receiving lethal doses of codeine and a drug used to treat nausea.

A 19-year-old Charleston woman also was among the fallen, sexually
assaulted and strangled in June by her stepfather, who then killed
himself. Also killed was an 82-year-old Moncks Corner man who was
beaten with a bat and stabbed at his home in February.

The Charleston area's experience is not unique. The number of
homicides nationwide declined by nearly 6 percent in the first six
months of last year, according to a recent FBI report. Law enforcement
agencies in the South reported a 2.4 percent decrease in violent crime
in that time period.

Several big cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Washington,
D.C., were expected to end the year with fewer homicides. In Chicago,
which led the nation in killings last year, homicides were down 25
percent, allowing the Windy City to finish the year with fewer than
500 killings for the first time in four decades.

Andrew J. Chishom, a senior professor of criminology and criminal
justice at the University of South Carolina, suspects the decline can
be traced to the recent migration of poor, urban residents to more
rural areas as gentrification and demolition pushes them out of
traditional quarters in the cities. Increased building in the
countryside also provides a draw, he said.

Stripped of their turf and street connections, criminals are landing
in unfamiliar surroundings, creating a "temporary stableness" that
could become lasting if authorities can keep that population in check,
Chishom said.

"When you attempt to clean up a war, the first thing we do is send our
army in there and move the folks who are causing it," he said. "If you
go overseas right now ... that's how we're cleaning it up. We are
going in and literally changing those areas and the people living there."

In South Carolina, "it's quietly happening, and Charleston is a good
example of this," Chishom said.

Eli Silverman, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice in New York, said law enforcement agencies also are
working harder at analyzing crime, identifying trends and sharing
information about strategies that work.

Chicago, for example, made a concerted effort to drive down its
homicide rate and borrowed many tactics from New York City, which has
seen its murder totals drop 70 percent since 1994.

"There is a greater sharing of information about strategies and
tactics from police department to police department and a greater
willingness to learn what works," he said.

In the Charleston area, police agencies have made much greater use of
crime analysis in the past few years, and several departments maintain
daily contact about crimes in the region, posting information and tips
on a shared database in an effort to quickly spot trends and identify
offenders.

Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said this cooperation has helped
to stem the violence, which he and others blame mostly on drugs and
domestic disputes. Aggressive efforts to suppress the drug trade and
court-ordered anger management classes for domestic violence offenders
also have made a difference, he said.

Still, it is unclear whether the trend will hold, given the random and
unpredictable nature of homicides, DeWitt said. Others agreed.

"So many of these occur in the heat of the moment, brought on by some
type of jealousy or rage, that there is not much we can do to prevent
it," said Charleston County Sheriff's Maj. Mitch Lucas.

Gun violence continued to be the leading cause of death in homicides,
accounting for 59 percent of all killings in the four-county metro
region. Many of the shootings involved young black men being shot by
other young black men.

"These boys are frustrated and anxious," Chishom said. "They are using
weapons that interest them, excite them and make them feel in control
of a fragmented life they don't even understand."

In Charleston County, which has borne the brunt of the violence, 13
black men were slain in 2004, the lowest number since 1998. Still,
black men continue to account for a disproportionately large share of
the region's homicide victims.

Black men, who make up 15 percent of the population in the four
counties, accounted for 52 percent of the people killed in the metro
region last year. Black women, who comprise 17 percent of the
population, accounted for another 24 percent of the homicide victims
last year.

Charleston City Councilman James Lewis is troubled by those numbers,
but he remains encouraged by the overall drop in homicides.

Lewis attributes the decrease in Charleston to increased police
efforts to rid the city of illegal narcotics and a greater willingness
among citizens to call police when they see drug-dealing and other
crime. He hopes to see this continue, but he thinks more needs to be
done. In particular, young people need more opportunities for
recreation, job training and education to combat the lure of easy
money selling drugs on the street, he said.

"It doesn't take much for a young person to get kicked out of school
these days, and once they hit the streets, they are going to end up
part of the judicial system," Lewis said. "If government can't control
street-corner crime, you are going to have murders because you are
going to have turf wars."

Charleston police have targeted street dealing in several operations,
including a sweep through three city housing complexes last month.
Through the end of October, police had made 725 drug arrests in the
city, a 12 percent jump over the same time period in 2003, according
to police statistics.

"We're keeping them on their toes a little bit," Moser said. "It's
kind of like dealing with terrorists: as long as we are attacking
them, they're not attacking us."

Zumalt said North Charleston police also have made a concentrated
effort to crack down on illegal weapons and drugs. As of Dec. 27,
police had arrested 2,211 people on drug charges in 2004 -- a 7
percent jump -- and had made more than 220 weapons arrests for the
second year in a row, he said.

In addition, North Charleston has worked to improve its neighborhoods
through such tactics as tearing down abandoned buildings that serve as
havens for illegal drug activity and prostitution. The city also has
flattened the troubled North Park Village and Century Oaks housing
developments to make way for new development, and launched a
concentrated effort last year to clean up the crime-plagued
Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood.

"We're taking on blighted areas and improving them and that, from a
broad perspective, is why crime is coming down in the city of North
Charleston," Zumalt said.