THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504020018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 192 lines
Debbie Morris has her own way of measuring crime. She doesn't see as many streetwalkers in Ocean View. Things must be improving.
``I've seen fewer hookers on my street than ever before,'' Morris said recently. ``I am not so sure they're gone, but they're not in my area.''
Morris, like most other residents of Norfolk, gauges the safety and civility of the city not by crime statistics, but by personal experience. Has a neighbor's car been stolen? Has a house on the block been burglarized? Has a friend been mugged?
It might be a small victory that complaints to police have helped get prostitutes out of her neighborhood, Morris said, but it is a personal signal that crime is dropping.
Early in January, Norfolk released its official crime figures for 1994, and the numbers mirrored Morris' belief.
Reported crime had dipped 10.5 percent since 1994. It was the largest annual reduction in 22 years, and it marked the fourth consecutive year that crime had decreased in the city.
What's behind this encouraging trend? City officials say that PACE, the city's community policing program, has caused the improvement. PACE enlists the help of residents to communicate with police to try to stop crimes before they happen.
Debbie Morris described the home-grown community policing used in her neighborhood. It may sound familiar to people from small towns or close-knit neighborhoods:
``I know every single neighbor, I know their phone numbers, their work numbers, their working hours,'' Morris said. ``We watch each other's houses; they go out to sea and we all watch out for each other. If I see something suspicious, I call a neighbor down the street.''
The police department's figures show that 58 of Norfolk's neighborhoods reported fewer crimes in 1994, while 28 reported more crime. One had no change.
The residential neighborhoods with the biggest improvements were scattered throughout the city. They were: Lafayette/Winona, Titustown, Young Terrace/Calvert Square/Church Street, Bayview/South Forest Park and Huntersville/Olde Huntersville.
At the other end of the safety spectrum, reported crime increased the most in Glenwood Park, Middle Towne Arch/Roberts Village/Bowling Green, Rosemont/Oakwood/Washington Park and Chesapeake Manor. The crime increases were generally much smaller than the decreases.
Ronald Carrier, 46, president of the Hollywood/Maple Hall Civic League, participates in community policing in two cities - Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Carrier's neighborhood, traditionally one of the safest in Norfolk, sits on the city line. Residents there decided regional cooperation was in order when they noticed strangers walking though Hollywood/Maple Hall from the Lake Edward section of Virginia Beach.
That's when they went directly to the Virginia Beach police. A mini-police station was opened about two years ago in Lake Edward, Carrier said, and ``Virginia Beach was able to identify 62 individuals'' as potential troublemakers. Things improved.
``Our crime just dropped,'' Carrier said.
He met at the Pretlow branch library recently with Debbie Morris and five other Norfolk residents at the request of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star to discuss crime and perceptions of crime.
Carrier gave the street-level view of crime statistics: ``If you're one of these numbers, there's no way you're going to think crime is down.''
However, few of Carrier's neighbors are ``one of these numbers.'' Twenty-one major crimes - mostly thefts - were reported in 1994 by the 1,335 residents.
Throughout Norfolk, about 20,000 major crimes were reported last year, down about 2,300 from 1993. The figures show a 26 percent drop over five years.
These figures reflected fewer reports of all seven major crimes used by the FBI to determine crime rates for cities across the United States. Murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft all dropped in Norfolk last year. Rape showed the biggest decrease - down 23 percent with 157 cases.
The police department numbers were taken from offense reports, which note the planning district - or neighborhood - where the crime occurred. Larceny, the taking of property, was by far the most frequent crime, accounting for 63.2 percent of the total. The city's 61 murders were 0.3 percent of the total.
The city's commercial areas, such as major shopping centers and the Central Business District, generally have more problems with larcenies and robberies than other neighborhoods, but crime fell in those areas as well.
Murders and rapes are the most frightening but least common crimes included in the FBI's index. Generally, neighborhoods reported no more than two murders for the year. The Brambleton section near Norfolk State University, however, had 11 - the most in the city.
Burglaries accounted for 15.7 percent of the city's total reported major crimes. Home burglaries account for 79 percent of the break-ins.
Burglary went down 16.4 percent in 1994, but it and other crimes still exist at a level that leaves victims and their neighbors with a lingering feeling of unease.
Burglars have hit Fleta Jackson's Colonial Place home twice. Each time, she felt as if her freedom had been violated.
``It's frustrating that I feel like I have to look over my shoulder all the time and I'm constantly telling my children to be careful, get in the car, lock the door,'' she said at the gathering of Norfolk residents. ``I didn't grow up like that.''
Clearly, some parts of the city are more dangerous than others. Three neighborhoods reported nine crimes for every 100 residents: North Colley, Glenwood Park, and Young Terrace/Calvert Square/Church Street.
East Ocean View led the city in total reported major crimes - 995. The Bayside neighborhood had more individual robberies, 127; residential burglaries, 293; and rapes, 16; than any other section in the city.
But crime in East Ocean View still dropped 3 percent, according to city figures.
Aaron Marshall, director of the East Ocean View Civic League, said he has noticed the improvement. How can he tell? His convertible hasn't been vandalized recently.
``There was a time when my car was getting broken into every couple of months, and it's been close to a year now and I've had nothing happen,'' said Marshall, 32, an electrical engineer.
Park Place and Brambleton near Norfolk State University also saw drops from past high numbers. Reported crime fell 14 percent in Park Place with 71 fewer reports, while Brambleton saw a 15 percent drop, with 70 fewer reports.
Still, Walter Combre, a Park Place resident, says he keeps a Smith & Wesson in his home for protection.
``But I guess I don't ever feel safe,'' said Combre, 55. ``I've learned to push it on the back burner and deal with it. I don't live in fear. Living in fear is probably more frustrating than having something happen to you.''
Combre, a retired woodworker who's lived in Park Place for 27 years, said the sound of gunshots used to make him duck. Not now. He's used to it.
``There are two kinds of fear. Positive and negative fear,'' he said. ``The positive fear is the fear of reality. Negative fear is just being scared and reshaping your life to suit whatever fears you have.''
Combre hasn't surrendered to fear, but he is aware, very aware, that things can go wrong.
``Awareness is very important,'' he said. ``. . . Whenever I'm up nights, I happen to get up for any reason, I'm looking just to see if I see anything that looks suspicious.''
Jim McDonald, who lives in Talbot Park, is also aware. He said he doesn't live in fear, but he is ever watchful after someone broke into his detached garage.
``Since then, when I get up to use the restroom at night I make it a habit and a point to check almost every window in the house,'' McDonald said.
``I pay very close attention to unusual things such as cars that I'm not familiar with or haven't seen, or people just being parked. I've definitely changed. I took a lot of things for granted and I've been very fortunate.'' MEMO: Staff writer Lise Olsen helped prepare this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Morris
Graphics
DECREASING CRIME IN NORFOLK...
COMPARED TO SOUTH HAMPTON ROADS
ADRIANA LIBREROS/Staff
NORFOLK NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME RATE
SOURCE: Police reports and analysis byt The Virginian-Pilot
[For complete graphics, please see microfilm]
Photos
Carrier
Jackson
Marshall
Combre
McDonald
Graphic
TO GET INVOLVED
For more information on how to get involved with community policing
in your neighborhood, contact the Norfolk Police Department's Crime
Prevention Unit at 441-1771. Written inquiries can be sent to 7665
Sewells Point Road, Norfolk, Va. 23513.
``Partnership for Public Safety in Our Neighborhoods'' is the theme
of Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim's next quarterly workshop. It will be
held from 9 a.m. to noon May 6 at Northside Middle School.
KEYWORDS: CRIME NORFOLK STATISTICS by CNB