Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506050011
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HUDDLESTON LENGTH: Long
For 25 years, Willie and Mary Howell spent their weekends auction-hopping, searching for antique furniture to decorate the dream house they were building on Smith Mountain Lake.
A handmade walnut table was destined for their kitchen. Another auction yielded a wardrobe. A tall cherry hutch was a gift from Mary Howell's brother.
Most of the furniture went into a small storage building in Bedford County, waiting for the day it would be moved into their retirement home.
But that day never came. One night a few years back when the Howells were out of town, someone broke down the door of the storage house and stole all their furniture.
They never found out who did it. Like many victims of property crime in Bedford County, their case never was solved by the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.
Last year, 81 percent of crimes investigated by the county Sheriff's Office went unsolved, according to figures from the state police. Most violent crimes were solved, but the Sheriff's Office lagged behind similar departments in solving thefts and burglaries.
For example, last year the county reported solving 51 of its 441 larcenies and 47 of 219 burglaries.
Among sheriff's offices statewide, Bedford County ranks near the bottom for solving cases. Of the 87 sheriff's offices that are full-fledged law enforcement agencies, only five had a lower percentage of cases solved last year than Bedford County.
Some say it could be because property crimes are tough to solve, but most say it boils down to one factor: growth.
Bedford County has the fastest population growth rate of any locality west of Richmond. And despite repeated requests for more deputies to keep pace with the boom, the Sheriff's Office keeps getting turned down by the state.
The deputy who came out to take a theft report from the Howells told them, "It could've been much worse."
But Mary Howell says, "That's not too much consolation if someone has ripped off things you really prized."
Whoever took the Howells' furniture knew it was there. The theft would've taken a lot of planning, she said, not to mention helpers to lift the heavier pieces and a large truck to tote them away.
She said her husband felt he wasn't getting any help from the Sheriff's Office, so he did his own detective work. He asked neighbors if they had heard anything about the stolen furniture and checked inventories of auctions.
Soon after the burglary, he heard about an auction in Greensboro, N.C., with pieces of furniture that were similar to theirs. Later, he heard that Lynchburg police had recovered a large amount of antique furniture in a burglary arrest.
Both times, Mary Howell said, her husband asked the Bedford County Sheriff's Office to look into his leads, but the Sheriff's Office never told them anything, she said.
Howell says she feels safe living in Bedford County, but not because of the Sheriff's Office. "I feel safe because we provide for it ourselves," she said. In their new home, the Howells have added security alarms and extra locks and lights.
The state average of unsolved crimes for all Virginia law enforcement agencies last year was 74 percent. The average sheriff's office in Virginia had 65 percent unsolved crimes.
Regionally, the sheriff's offices in Botetourt and Franklin counties ranked much better than Bedford County's. Compared to Bedford County's 81 percent of crimes unsolved, Botetourt had 61 percent and Franklin 60 percent.
It's been much the same for the past five years. On average, since 1990, the Bedford County Sheriff's Office has had the highest percentage of unsolved crimes among all sheriff's offices and police departments in the region.
But Botetourt and Franklin also have less reported crimes to solve than Bedford County. In 1990, Bedford had 618 felonies, Botetourt had 401, and Franklin had 504. Last year, Bedford had 722 felonies, Botetourt had 255 and Franklin had 383.
And while crime in Botetourt and Franklin has been cut almost in half over the past five years and has fallen steadily since 1992, crime in Bedford County has risen by almost 25 percent over the past three years.
How accurate are the figures?
"As far as Bedford County's concerned, our figures are accurate," Sheriff Carl Wells said. If they weren't accurate, he said, he wouldn't submit them to the state police.
The number of cases solved by local law enforcement agencies is filed annually with the state police. The statistics take into account only felony crimes - murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.
A case is considered solved - or cleared - if an arrest has been made or the case has been closed some other way, such as if an item reported stolen is later found, the victim refuses to press charges or the perpetrator dies.
But the figures submitted to the state can be misleading. For one thing, if a law-enforcement agency solves a crime from a previous year, it can add that to its cases solved.
The percentages can confuse matters, too. If an agency has only one burglary and solves it, its clearance rate is 100 percent. But if another agency has 100 burglaries and solves 90, its clearance rate will be less.
That may not make for an accurate comparsion of the effectiveness of the two agencies. Especially if the first department has more officers to investigate each crime.
Manpower is probably one of the biggest reasons for Bedford County's track record on crime.
The Sheriff's Office has 16 road deputies to patrol a 770-square-mile county with more than 50,000 residents. It has positions for four investigators, but only three are filled. And only two of them are seasoned, Wells said.
Wells relies mostly on the state Compensation Board - the agency that funds most constitutional offices in Virginia to ensure their independence from local governing bodies - for funding. That causes problems, he said, because of the way the board allocates its resources.
State law requires sheriff's offices to have one deputy per 2,000 residents. But the board decides in July how many deputies each department should have, basing the decision on population estimates from the previous year.
That means that until July of this year, the fast-growing county is still receiving funding based on population figures from July 1993.
Right now the Sheriff's Office is getting state funding for 24 deputies. But of that number, Wells has to have one Drug Abuse and Resistance Education officer, a vice officer and supervisors. That leaves 16 deputies for the road, he says. Not all of them work at the same time, and they're expected to do more than patrol roads.
"When the judge wants a man in his courtroom, you've got to have a man in that courtroom," Wells said, even if that means pulling a deputy off the road. Deputies also serve civil papers.
The sheriff said he's asked for extra deputies, but the state won't give them to him. The county Board of Supervisors funds two full-time dispatchers and supplements salaries for other dispatchers, but, unlike Franklin and Botetourt counties, it doesn't allocate funding for extra deputies.
Franklin County's Board of Supervisors funds six positions in its Sheriff's Office, two of which are DARE officers. There are 20 road deputies to patrol the 722-square-mile county of 40,000 residents.
The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors allocates funding for two road deputies, and the town of Buchanan supplies funding for another deputy. With roughly half the population of Bedford County and about one-third less land to patrol, Botetourt County has the same number of road deputies as Bedford.
Bedford County Administrator Bill Rolfe said the county provides money for dispatchers because the state Compensation Board figures in only the county's needs for police dispatchers and doesn't consider calls for fire and rescue when it allocates funding.
Money is limited for other county funding for the Sheriff's Office, Rolfe said, but to his knowledge the sheriff never has asked for additional funding for road deputies.
"Whoever's going to sit in this chair if and when I leave will be in the same boat," Wells said. He has not announced whether he will run for sheriff again this year, but many say he will retire.
Not everybody thinks the Bedford County Sheriff's Office is doing a bad job.
It's all relative, if you ask Oliver Sage. The former New Jersey resident lives in Franklin County, just south of the Bedford County border.
He goes to church in Bedford County and does a lot of traveling there.
"Crime in this area is at a minimum," he said. "I don't have any problems going to Bedford at night at all. I feel safe there."
He believes Bedford County's rate of crimes solved is lower than Botetourt's or Franklin's because Bedford County is less rural. "Crime is less in rural areas, isn't it?" he asked.
His county, he said, doesn't have anything comparable to Bedford County's Forest neighborhood - a populated bedroom community dotted by convenience stores and shopping centers.
Like the Howells, George Beckwith was the victim of an unsolved crime in Bedford County.
Shortly before Christmas three years ago, he came home from work early, entering his home from the basement. He heard people upstairs, but knew his family wasn't home. Then a door slammed and he heard car wheels squealing outside.
He called the Bedford County Sheriff's Office. Within 10 minutes, a deputy arrived.
After making sure no one was in the house, the deputy led Beckwith into his living room. In haste, the burglars had left unopened Christmas gifts and pillowcases full of silver and jewels. They made off with many of his children's gifts.
The deputy looked for fingerprints in the living room, but couldn't find any usable ones. A month later, the deputy called back to tell Beckwith he still didn't have any leads.
"They didn't just call later that night and drop it," Beckwith said. "They were kind enough to get back in touch with me." Beckwith says he thinks the Sheriff's Office did everything it could for him.
"I think they do as good a job as they can, considering the limited manpower they have and the area they have to cover."
by CNB