
DATE: Tuesday, July 29, 1997                TAG: 9707290274

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NAOMI AOKI, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  154 lines

PROPERTY CRIMES TOUGH TO TACKLE

The last time Clarence Lassiter was arrested for stealing, he was inside a 7-Eleven in Ocean View, high on crack. He had stuffed his pockets and clothing with cartons of cigarettes while an alarm blared.

By his own account, Lassiter wasn't a good thief. He got caught forging checks, shoplifting and breaking into businesses. He's spent about 14 of the last 20 years behind bars.

His style was simply to kick in a window or bust through a door. Lassiter, 37, is now serving time in Norfolk City Jail for burglary and grand larceny. ``Nothing was ever planned. I was a crash-and-bash thief.''

When he wasn't in jail or prison, Lassiter figures he stole about twice a week. That's more than 600 burglaries or thefts, compared to the 12 convictions on his court record.

Like most thieves, Lassiter got away more often than he got caught.

Police in Hampton Roads have far more success catching killers and rapists than nabbing property criminals like Lassiter.

In fact, they made arrests in only about 2 in 10 of the 56,500 property crimes during 1995, the same year they cuffed suspects in nearly 7 in 10 of the 16,700 violent crimes that were committed. Those statistics reflect a nationwide pattern.

Property crimes are burglary, auto theft, grand and petty larceny and arson. Violent crimes include murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery.

The low ``clearance rate'' for property crimes is frustrating to police.

``In most cases, I couldn't even take an educated guess about how much (thieves) have gotten away with for the one time they get caught,'' said Detective Buddy Saunders, a burglary investigator in Portsmouth.

Police say the sheer volume of property crimes makes catching thieves difficult. They say thieves, unlike their more violent counterparts, are rarely seen or heard. And then there's the issue of priorities.

``For a murder, we may spend a week working nothing but that case and we may even pull in extra detectives to help,'' Saunders said. ``For a burglary, you just can't justify that kind of manpower, and if you did, you'd have 120 reports back up with all those victims who wouldn't even get a phone call.''

Police say most thieves they catch are repeat offenders, like Lassiter. They steal to support themselves, which often means trading stolen goods for drugs. They get caught, spend some time behind bars, hit the streets and start over again, police say. And even when they are caught, many thieves are never linked to all their crimes.

Lassiter pleads guilty to all the above.

He started stealing to feed his heroin and cocaine addictions and kept stealing to support a crack addiction, which cost him as much as $50 an hour.

``Stealing, from my point of view, wasn't hurting anyone but myself,'' Lassiter said, explaining that he stole almost exclusively from businesses. ``I figured that insurance would pay for it.''

Lassiter would walk to a nearby business at night and break in through a back door, he said. Or he'd get a ride to a closed convenience store, break a window and go in for his loot.

Mostly, he stole VCRs, camcorders and jewelry, which he would trade to a drug dealer for a fraction of their value, he said. Cigarettes were another popular score, he said, because he could trade a carton for $10 worth of crack.

``I never got to live or experience life as adult,'' said Lassiter, who went to jail for the first time when he was 17. ``You don't have any responsibilities in prison. No rent, no bills. Then, you get out and have all these responsibilities pushed on you and you don't know how to deal with them.''

Lassiter is now in a rehabilitation program for the first time. The 35 inmates in the program, called Before and After, participate in and lead classes about life skills, honesty and responsibility. The program is designed for inmates to analyze and change their behavior. Enrollment is voluntary.

Lassiter said he now thinks differently about stealing, drug use and his future.

But his incarcerations did little to keep him from stealing again, he said. He would do his time in prison or jail, all the while continuing to use drugs, he said. He'd get out and steal again until he got caught.

All the while, Lassiter was only one of thousands of thieves adding to local investigators' workloads. Police get hundreds of reports a day about property stolen from homes, businesses or cars, and investigators are inundated with burglaries, auto thefts and larcenies.

An investigator who works property crimes might have 120 open cases at any given time, while a violent-crimes detective might have 20, Saunders said.

Thieves break into businesses at night and homes by day when there are few people around to see them. Usable fingerprints are rare, police say, and tracing them is even rarer. Police can't just enter a fingerprint into a computer and get a match, Saunders said.

To make matters worse, police say many victims don't mark their property and don't have the serial numbers or descriptions police need to connect the stolen goods to the crime or the criminal.

``If I get 30 cases today, there's no way to investigate them all,'' Saunders said. ``I have to evaluate where my best chances are. Being realistic, there's no way you can do everything. You can't do what's in one person's best interest. You have to do what's in the city's best interest.''

So police say they are more likely to chase the crimes where the leads are good and where victims can provide accurate and detailed descriptions of the stolen property.

In Norfolk, for example, the amount stolen is also a factor in which larcenies are investigated. If more than $500 worth is stolen, police investigate, spokesman Larry Hill said. All burglaries and auto thefts are investigated.

Police also look for patterns - thieves targeting certain types of cars; burglars who work a certain neighborhood during a particular time of day; shoplifting rings that steal particular types of goods.

Those patterns have ``helped us solve some crimes,'' Chesapeake police spokesman Dave Hughes said. ``It also helps prevent a lot, which is also one of our goals.''

Lassiter lauded police officers' efforts to prevent thefts and catch thieves.

``As far as I'm concerned, they do a very good job. After all, they catch me all the time,'' he said, laughing. He added that he thinks a visible police presence in low-income areas - such as the ones where he committed many of his crimes - would help curb drug and criminal activity.

Lassiter said he regrets the pain and inconvenience he has caused his victims. He said he realizes now that his thefts do affect others in the form of increased insurance premiums and retail prices.

He is optimistic that the jail's Before and After program will help him break his cycle of stealing. His primary goal is to stay drug-free. He said he will look for a place in a treatment center or halfway house when he gets out in about two years to help him weather the transition.

He also hopes to help the other inmates in the program.

``I made poor decisions when I was young and I never got up from it,'' Lassiter said. ``I've thrown away 20 years of my life, and that is a travesty. But as long as there is breath, there is hope.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

AN ARRESTING PROBLEM

Clarence Lassiter, 37, an inmate in the Norfolk jail, has spent

about 14 of the last 20 years behind bars - much of it for burglary

and grand larceny. He hopes a rehabilitation program he's

participating in at the jail will help him change.

Chart

1995 South Hampton Roads Arrest Rates

Graphic

SOME TIPS

Engrave your name or Social Security number on commonly stolen

items, such as televisions, VCRs and stereos. Take pictures of your