THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
How much do neighborhoods need or deserve to know about crime on their streets?
The City Council debated the issue Tuesday, amid concerns from administrators that releasing such information could open the door to other, more intrusive data.
A new computerized mapping system allows Norfolk to compile crime and other data down to the block. But it is not kept by neighborhood. To release it in that form, the city would have to plug community boundaries into its computer.
A city programmer told the council that it would take his staff two days to put that information into the system.
But City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. said the issue was more complicated than most council members realized.
Releasing crime data could lead to discussing whether to release possibly sensitive information such as the number of AIDS cases on a block, taxes paid, welfare recipients and rabies, he said.
``If all they really want is arrest records, that's relatively easy,'' Oliver said.
Mayor Paul D. Fraim and Councilman W. Randy Wright led the majority who wanted to figure out a way to release the information. Fraim said the city cannot ask citizens to help fight crime through programs like community policing and then not be open with them about data the city collects.
``You can't decide which information we are going to give people, and which we are going to withhold from them,'' Fraim said. ``If you trust them, you trust them. It's not a program, it's a philosophy.''
But another councilman, the Rev. Joseph N. Green, said he fears some neighborhoods will be blackballed by real estate agents or other neighborhoods because of high crime. This, he said, could promote, rather than slow, neighborhood deterioration.
The council has been discussing the issue for several weeks after John Roger, president of the Bayview Civic League, requested the information.
Roger already publishes the data in his civic league newsletter but has to cull it from reports at the police station, which he said takes about four hours a week.
Roger said the data helps his neighborhood fight crime.
``When people know there's been three robberies down the street, they are a little more careful,'' Rogers said.
The council took no action Tuesday but directed the city manager to prepare more specific recommendations on releasing crime data, and to work with civic league representatives when doing so. by CNB