CRIME IN WALKER: LIKE REST OF NATION, DRUG CRIME TAKES UPSWING

The good news is that DUIs in Walker County have dropped dramatically.

The bad news is that drug crimes have increased even more
dramatically.

That's part of the message in statistics from the Sheriff's Department
for an eight-year period from 1997 to 2004.

DUI arrests in Walker have dropped about 46 percent, while drug
arrests have risen 275 percent.

Sheriff Steve Wilson, who was elected to his office in 1997, said the
local trend seems to follow the national picture.

"DUIs have seen a national decrease over the last 20 years," Sheriff
Wilson said, attributing that to stricter enforcement, efforts from
groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and motorists using
designated drivers.

In Walker during the period, DUI arrests dropped from a high of 525 in
1999 to 284 in 2004. Meanwhile, drug arrests rose from a low of 195 in
1997 to 733 in 2004.

Sheriff Wilson said methamphetamine use is in part to blame for the
increase in drug arrests. Northwest Georgia is considered among the
worst in the nation for meth use.

He said about 60 percent of all crimes committed in Walker County
involve the use or sale of illegal drugs. If alcohol is factored in,
that figure increases dramatically, he said.

The sheriff said about 90 percent of inmates at the Walker County jail
have substance abuse related to their arrest.

Wilson said Walker's crimes reflect the national trend in other ways,
citing FBI data showing that both violent and property crimes have
decreased overall in the past five years. Still, Walker is better than
many areas.

"We're very fortunate," the sheriff said, "We enjoy the conveniences
of living in a metro area, but we don't have the crime that a big city
has."

In 1999 the county recorded its lowest crime rate in the past eight
years, a condition similar to the national crime statistics.

The sheriff said significant decreases in crime were observed in the
late 1990s, partly because a cycle of high crime rates in the previous
decade had run its course.

Much of that late-1980s and early-1990s cycle of crime could be
attributed to the rise in crack cocaine use, Wilson said.

Property crimes down

"The majority of our investigations were for property crimes," Wilson
said.

These include offenses such as burglary and criminal
trespassing.

One statistic that pleases Sheriff Wilson is the reduction in
burglaries, which are down about 16 percent from 2002.

Auto break-ins, which Wilson says have become more prevalent in the
north end of the county and doubled between 2000 and 2002, were down
5.5 percent in 2004.

One area of steady increase is fraud and forgery, so-called
white-collar crimes.

The sheriff said that while all these offenses are not necessarily
perpetrated by people who might be considered white-collar, "any
criminal mind will try to find new ways to circumvent the system."

Wilson attributed the advances in computer technology as part of the
reason for more offenses such as forged checks and identity theft.

Violent crimes steady

Figures show that violent crimes such as armed robbery and murder have
maintained steady numbers in the last eight years, and they are
generally low.

In that time the county has never had more than four murder
investigations annually, which averages to a little more than two per
year, the statistics show.

The Walker County Sheriff's Department investigated one murder in
2004.

More selective

The overall number of cases assigned in the department decreased
nearly 21 percent from 1997 to 2004.

The sheriff said part of the decrease can be attributed to a change in
the procedure for assigning cases.

This change came two years ago when sheriff's supervisors began
assigning cases for investigation more carefully, Wilson said.

For example, previously the department opened a case for every
referral received from the Department of Family and Children Services,
the sheriff said.

"Now each referral is critiqued more closely, and we separate say, a
case of head lice from a case of real neglect," he said.

Wilson said the same is true for cases of domestic violence, where
better options for victims to remove themselves voluntarily from their
situation have reduced the need for full-on investigation.

Still, the overall number of child abuse and domestic violence cases
has decreased since 1997, according to the report.