ARRESTS PLUMMET IN FIRST PART OF YEAR, REPORT SAYS

Police arrested fewer adults and juveniles in Milwaukee during the first
four months of 1998, according to state figures.

Adult arrests went down 12.5% from 26,756 for the same period in 1997 to
23,412 in 1998, according to the state Office of Justice Assistance, which
gave police the figures. Police released them Wednesday.

Juvenile arrests declined by 15.4%, from 7,390 in the first four months of
1997 to 6,255 in the first four months of 1998.

Tom Everson, coordinator of state crime reporting, said adult arrests in
Milwaukee have not dropped annually since 1990. The last time juvenile
arrests dropped annually was 1988, he said.

Police Chief Arthur Jones said Wednesday he believes the drop in arrests is
due to the deterrent effect of his "quality of life" law enforcement policies.

"In the City of Milwaukee, people know that the Milwaukee Police Department
will not tolerate the type of behavior that was tolerated in the past,"
Jones said.

The arrest statistics do not count municipal citations, which have been on
the rise in Milwaukee. Jones announced last spring that the number of
non-traffic municipal citations written in 1997 increased 41% when compared
with 1996. Citation numbers aren't available for 1998.

Jones and Mayor John O. Norquist announced in July that overall crime
reported to police dropped 5% in the first six months of 1998.

James Albritton, director of the criminology and law studies program at
Marquette University, said a decline in arrests can be interpreted several
ways.

On the downside, he said, some might say that fewer arrests could be a
"passive resistance" on the streets by officers against departmental policies.

On the upside, Albritton said, the numbers may reflect the change in
"police patterns of enforcement."

"You might see an increase in certain kinds of police activities that might
not lead to arrests but in which they're attempting to create a deterrent
effect," he said.

Some areas in which juvenile arrest figures were particularly noteworthy
include robberies, which decreased from 130 to 69; vandalism arrests, which
dropped from 346 to 193; motor vehicle theft arrests, which dropped from
261 to 168; and sex offense arrests, which dropped from 115 to 79.

However, weapons law violations and aggravated assaults increased.

Among adults, drunken driving arrests declined from 1,013 to 796; drug
arrests fell from 1,700 to 1,503; and vandalism arrests dwindled from 1,359
to 649.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski