Crime rates falling, but law enforcement must keep targeting hot spots

Editorial by Wilmington Star-News, September 9, 2013.

It may not seem like it, but overall crime has gone down, both in North Carolina and the Cape Fear region. Statewide, the crime rate fell last year to its lowest point in 36 years. That's significant, as is a continued downward trend in crime in this part of the state.

Law enforcement officials credit beefed-up patrols and targeting specific individuals or groups that are responsible for much of the crime. Enhanced technology to monitor public spaces and to help track criminals also may play a role.

But as with all statistics, the news in some areas is better than in others. Brunswick and Pender report lower crime rates than the state average. Crime rates in New Hanover and Columbus counties, however, were higher. Violent crime was down across the board. But in Wilmington, burglaries were up. Much of the increase in break-ins was attributed to a two-month window during which the police department patrolled an area near Monkey Junction that was temporarily part of Wilmington before the General Assembly de-annexed it.

The drop in violent crime in Wilmington may be difficult to believe, based on what seems to be a continual string of shootings. But even with those highly publicized cases, the city is on a path to a 4 percent drop in violent crime from 2012 to 2013.

Police Chief Ralph Evangelous attributes the trend to the department's focus on specific individuals or groups responsible for a sizeable percentage of the crime in Wilmington, and for efforts to encourage people in the affected neighborhoods to talk with police and report what they see. That part of the equation still has far to go, because building trust among people who fear retribution if they tip off the police is very difficult.

No amount of crime is acceptable, nor is it any comfort that the lion's share of violent crime in Wilmington occurs in a few pockets around town and is caused by a relatively small number of people.

Not all violent crimes involve an attacker and an "innocent" victim." When someone reports that he was walking or driving in a known high-crime area in the middle of the night (just minding his own business, don't you know) there is reason to suspect that maybe the victim isn't telling the whole story.

But delivery and cab drivers, as well as people who visit, live or work in these high-crime areas, deserve to be protected from harm. By focusing on those whose names keep turning up on the court calendars, police have a better chance of shutting them down.

Police also know that a very large percentage of property crime is drug-related – junkies financing their drug habit. The solution to that problem is a long way off and is not helped by reductions in money for drug treatment programs.

In addition to targeting people and specific areas, police also count on anonymous tips to lead them to criminals up to no good. The addition in recent years of a text-a-tip system shows promise, but it would work even better if more people trusted that anonymity were guaranteed. That will take time, as will chipping away at crime rates that still are too high.

Nevertheless, the system works best when the community is on alert and tells the police when something isn't right.