CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Statistics Show That Police Are Doing Something Right

There are at least a couple of encouraging trends to note in the latest
statistics that show a decline in serious crime in Birmingham for the first
half of the year.

When police officers focus on a particular crime problem, they can
have a significant impact. Case in point: Last year's vehicle theft
rate shot up nearly 50 percent, but after a special effort to crack
down on car thieves and backyard chop shops, this year's vehicle theft
rate has dropped 12 percent so far.

The city's serious crime rate dropped despite much higher numbers of
prisoners being released from confinement because state prisons are
overcrowded. Last year, more than double the number of parolees left
state prisons and moved to Jefferson County than the year before (552
parolees vs. 261 in 2002).

Mostly, this is all good news. Even a 24 percent increase in rapes is
explained by Nancy Falls, a program director at Rape Response, as
increased reporting of the crime. Treating rape victims more
sensitively surely encourages more women to report and fewer women to
feel stigmatized.

Encouraging, too, is that police officers are realistic about which
crimes they truly can have an impact on. No law officer is satisfied
with the city's homicide rate, even though it has fallen 37 percent in
the year's first six months. But police department homicide officials
quickly admit they don't know why the homicide rate has dropped so
steeply.

Often, murders occur as crimes of passion and are practically
impossible for police officers to prevent. Unlike house break-ins or
even theft or robbery, where a crime pattern sometimes can be
determined, murder usually occurs at random. Police officers are
called to the scene after the fact and concentrate on finding a
killer, not preventing a killing.

Still, as homicide Sgt. Scott Praytor pointed out, some city efforts
like the neighborhood watch program and Project Safe, a domestic
violence prevention program, may be having an effect on the homicide
rate, too.

No doubt, the more visible police officers are on their beats and in
patrolling the streets, the fewer crimes committed. Career criminals
often move away from areas where police officers are active and visible.

Prosecutors and others also should consider whether their concerns
were overblown that letting nonviolent criminals out of prison early
would lead to a corresponding rise in crime. It still may be too soon
for a definitive answer, but clearly the city's crime rate dropped
even as more prisoners from Jefferson County were being released due
to overcrowding.

That there are more services and support for newly released prisoners
surely is having some effect: Only 6 percent of early parolees have
returned to prison, either for new crimes or parole violations, an
incredibly low return rate.

Whether early parolees can stay out of trouble long term is the
difficult question. At the very least, having larger numbers of
previous offenders re-entering a community means police officers must
be ever more vigilant.

Credit Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn and her department for
doing the job so far.