CRIME STATISTICS POINT TOWARD A LOSING BATTLE

The recent appearance of Macon at the 57th position on the Morgan Quitno
Press 350 most dangerous cities list could be disconcerting. To find Macon
at the ninth position on the Top 10 list for small cities is disturbing.
But the main questions arising from Macon's appearing on the lists are not
easily explained by a regurgitation of FBI statistics. Is Macon a dangerous
city? Is Macon more dangerous than Columbus which is 193 on the list? For
those answers, the methodology of compiling the list has to be examined.

The statistics, while accurate, look at six crimes equally: Murders, rapes,
robberies, aggravated assault, burglaries and auto thefts. Mercer professor
Allen Lynch explained in a Telegraph article that a city with 100 auto
thefts is considered equal to a city with 100 murders in the same time
period. This is not to say that Macon's crime stats are just anomalies in
the Morgan Quitno release, but the 2003 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics Report
might help put the figures into perspective.

There were 362.7 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in the Macon MSA;
Albany, 438.2; Athens 306.0; Augusta had 389.7 and Columbus 374.3, so it's
hardly time to start selling real estate. We would start to worry if the
area had 1,044.8 crimes per 100,000 like Florence, S.C.

To bring the statistics down to earth, look at just murders and rapes:
Macon had 18 murders and 46 rapes; Albany, 6 and 37; Athens, 9 and 52;
Augusta, 46 and 262; Columbus, 2 and 10. In property crimes Macon had
9,072; Albany 4,648; Athens 6,084; Augusta 20,776 and Columbus 12,948.

Worrying about crime statistics is one thing, but what does a city do to
lower them? The first finger pointed is usually aimed at the police
department, but the other fingers should point at various factors in the
community and generally revolve around money.

Many of the robberies, burglaries and auto thefts which make up the vast
majority of the reported crimes are the result of an exploding drug trade.
Low-level users commit crimes to support their drug habits. However, there
are few options beyond throwing the perpetrators behind bars when they are
finally apprehended, and that option is the most expensive one of all.

Apparently, it's easier for lawmakers to justify building and funding
prison operations, at $18,000 per year per prisoner, than treatment centers
or alternative sentencing options. Some not-for-profit treatment centers
are disappearing due to lack of state support. Macon's Drug Court has a
good record of getting offenders in a program of supervision and off drugs
without locking them up, but even it faces funding challenges that threaten
its existence. That leaves this city and others in the unenviable position
of attacking the symptom (crime), rather than its cause (drugs). And that
seems to be a losing battle, as the statistics explain.