THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412120052
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Police Chief Dennis A. Mook doesn't argue with the FBI's ranking of his city as the 24th most murderous municipality in the country - a notorious listing that puts Portsmouth up there with such homicide capitals as Miami, Cleveland, Newark and Los Angeles.
After all, Mook says, numbers don't lie, and the fact is that 31 people were murdered during 1993 in Portsmouth, a city of just over 100,000 residents.
But Mook, a 20-year veteran of the Portsmouth Police Department, believes there is a story behind the numbers.
``If you look at each (homicide), they are tied in closely to the drug business,'' Mook, 42, said during an interview last week. ``You are pretty darn safe if you are not in the drug business. If you mess in the drug subculture, you are on your own out there. But for the vast percentage of the people in Portsmouth, you are as safe as you are in any other city.''
No other Hampton Roads city made the top-25 list. Virginia Beach had the lowest murder rate in the region and one of the lowest rates among cities of over 100,000. .
Norfolk was the second worst in the rankings among Hampton Roads cities and was followed by Newport News, Hampton and Chesapeake. None of the region's other cities made the top-25 list. Suffolk, because of its relatively small population, was not included.
The 1993 FBI report, which also assessed the first half of 1994, showed several positive trends nationally. While still high by historical standards, serious crime in the first six months of 1994 fell by 3 percent from the same period last year. The semiannual decline followed annual decreases of 2 percent in 1993 and 3 percent in 1992.
The FBI divides serious crimes into two categories: crimes of violence and crimes against property. When the violent crimes across the nation were measured for the first six months of this year, murder decreased 2 percent; forcible rape, 6 percent; robbery, 4 percent; and aggravated assault, 3 percent.
Mook said the murder figures for the first six months of 1994 in Portsmouth also are down. This year, 20 homicides have been reported in Portsmouth. At the current pace, city detectives can expect to investigate about 22 slayings by New Year's Eve, according to a Portsmouth police spokesman. The city set a homicide record in 1992 when 36 people were killed.
The FBI's national figures also back up Mook's claim about Portsmouth murders, that they are increasingly linked to the drug trade.
For the first time, the FBI says, Americans are more likely to be killed by a stranger than by a family member or a friend. The FBI says that strangers and unknown killers made up 53 percent of cases, a historic high.
The FBI attributes the pattern shift to gang-related violence, much of it connected to drug activities.
The drug business also has influenced other violent crimes, Mook said. For instance, robberies in Portsmouth were up in 1993 from 1992 by about 13 percent.
Most of the increase, he said, is due to ``rip-offs'' connected to drug transactions. These illegal transactions also impact aggravated assaults, which went up about 3 percent.
``Dealers rip off the dealers and they kill each other to get back,'' Mook said.
Since Mook took over in April as chief from Leslie K. Martinez, who resigned, he has emphasized community policing, the DARE anti-drug program and other initiatives designed to increase citizen participation in crime fighting.
Other positive signs that the community is responding in a unified way to the city's crime problems, he said, are a black-on-black violent crime committee started by City Manager V. Wayne Orton and a crime symposium held in the city last April.
``It is wonderful to see the community coming together,'' Mook said. ``Violence and crime are not a police problem, they are a community problem.''
Mook said future FBI reports are likely to show Portsmouth at or near the top of crime statistics in the Hampton Roads area because of several factors, including its relatively large number of low-income residents.
But Mook said most violent crimes also are likely to remain in several of the city's high-crime neighborhoods.
``I guess one message I would want to get out to our citizens is that there is no need to panic,'' Mook said. ``Unless you are in the drug business or attempting to buy drugs, the chances of you getting shot and killed are pretty slim.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Dennis A. Mook
KEYWORDS: MURDER PORTSMOUTH POLICE DEPARTMENT CRIME STATISTICS by CNB