THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505020113
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
THE RESIDENTS WERE suspicious. They had met at the Pretlow branch library with Virginian-Pilot reporters to discuss Norfolk's reported crime drop and how crime has affected their neighborhoods.
They scanned through the 1994 police statistics and shrugged their shoulders. These numbers may be accurate, they said, but how crime affects them personally is more important.
They also wanted to know what specific crimes were reported in each neighborhood.
Norfolk's figures show that reported crime dropped 10.5 percent from 1993 to 1994.
The dip is the largest annual reduction in 22 years, and the figures, released in January, showed that for the fourth consecutive year crime had decreased in Norfolk.
City officials have credited PACE, the city's community policing program, with the improvement. Through PACE, residents communicate with police to try to stop crimes before they happen.
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 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 accompanying chart lists Norfolk's 90 planning districts and what crimes were reported in each in 1994. Also listed is the crime rate, which is per 1,000 residents so that it's possible to compare neighborhood crimes equally.
The planning districts include residential and commercial areas - those neighborhoods with less than 30 percent residential development, such as Wards Corner, Naval Base and Fort Norfolk. Crime rates for these areas could not be calculated because of few residents and numerous workers and shoppers.
Six residents from throughout the city met at the Pretlow branch library at the request of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star to discuss their perceptions of crime.
Crime, they said, affects their daily lives, but it is up to residents to help protect their homes by working with police, organizing block watches and getting to know their fellow neighbors.
However, they said the police statistics don't always reflect how the average person feels about crime in their neighborhoods. The following are excerpts from that discussion:
For Ronald Carrier, president of the Hollywood/Maple Hall Civic League, the fight against crime doesn't stop at the city line. He has worked with both Norfolk and Virginia Beach police to slow lawlessness in his neighborhood.
``If you're one of these numbers, there's no way you're going to feel crime is down. Until there is no numbers, crime is not really down. . . . I'm in Hollywood Homes . . . the safest neighborhood in the city because we work at it. We have a strong civic league.
News reports seem to focus just on the high-profile crimes, he said.
``I'm more interested in break-ins and muggings and assaults more than I am about bank robbers. To me crime is more personal than the overall statistics of car thefts and bank robbers . . .''
Fleta Jackson, a self-employed graphic designer who lives in Colonial Place, has been a burglary victim.
``Our house has been broken into twice. . . . 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. I didn't grow up like that.
``(Kids) thought twice before they got into trouble when I was growing up. Everybody knew who you were . . .''
Aaron Marshall, a director with East Ocean View Civic League, said neighbors have to reconnect with one another to keep the encouraging trend.
``If you don't know who belongs in your neighborhood in the first place, how are you going to know when this is a criminal or neighbor. . . . If you don't know who they are, they could be a thief going into the door next door. That leads you to not care who they are. You just kind of go back in your place, close the door and forget about it.''
Marshall, an electrical engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding, can see firsthand the crime decrease because his car was not being broken into as often.
Home-grown community policing has helped Ocean View resident Debbie Morris and her neighbors drive prostitutes from their district.
``I can tell you I know every single neighbor, I know their phone numbers, their work numbers, their working hours,'' said Morris, a Navy employee. ``We watch each others' houses, they go out to sea, and we all watch out for each other. If I see something suspicious, I call the neighbor down the street. She'll watch. We'll all set our alarms off. It's just neighbors watching neighbors . . .''
After some houses in Jim McDonald's neighborhood were burglarized, Talbot Park residents packed a church to come up with solutions. And when a crook broke into his detached garage, he said his daily routine shifted.
``When I get up . . . 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, being inside the car. I've definitely changed. I took a lot of things for granted.''
Walter Combre, a Park Place resident and a retired wood worker, also peeks out his windows at night for suspicious people on his street.
``Awareness is very important,'' he said. ``But I guess I don't ever feel safe. I've learned to put 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. There are two kinds of fear, positive and negative. . . . The positive fear is just being scared and reshaping your life to suit whatever fears you have.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOHN KOTLOWSKI
Aaron Marshall, left, and Ronald Carrier were among the Norfolk
residents who gathered to discuss their perceptions of crime in the
city.
Graphic
Police Reports and analysis by the Virginian Pilot
Norfolk: Neighborhood crime rate
[List of neighborhoods by name, the crime rate, types of crimes
committed]
Major crimes reported per 1,000 residents in 1994
Frequency of Major Crimes
Figuring the Crime Rate
[For copy of Graphic, see microfilm.]
KEYWORDS: CRIME STATISTICS CRIME RATE NORFOLK by CNB