THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 50 lines
Feeling safer?
If you're not, you should be.
Crime last year fell to its lowest level in a decade, according to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report. It's the fourth drop in four years. Violent crime dipped 4 percent in 1995, with murder falling at an even faster rate. Property crime was down 1 percent, to the lowest level since 1987.
Politicians can argue about whether credit goes to the GOP's tough-on-crime initiatives, President Clinton's push to put more police officers on the street or to an improved economy. Probably, it's some of all three, plus an assortment of other factors.
Across the country, more violent criminals are staying behind bars longer. Unemployment is at its lowest level in seven years. The number of police officers is up. And the drug world is less volatile - and violent - than when crack-cocaine markets were being established in the late 1980s.
Still, for all the good news, crime remains far too prevalent, and some of it is much too close to home.
While national figures are cause for hope, improvements in Virginia are more modest. There was a minuscule increase in violent crimes in the state last year, along with a small drop in property crimes. The number of violent crimes reported grew by about 500 to 23,921. The number of property crimes dipped by about 700 to 240,084.
The Richmond-Petersburg area still ranks as one of the nation's murder capitals with the 11th highest murder rate in the nation.
When other violent crimes are added, the area dips to a more respectable 125th. The Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News metro area ranked 136th nationally in violent crimes for 1995, and preliminary data for 1996 show that a downward trend is continuing.
Still, trends and percentages aside, no one should be satisfied with a situation in which 21,597 Americans were murdered last year. Nor should we forget that, in part, crime looks better in the 1990s simply because it became so bleak in the 1980s.
The violent-crime portion of the overall crime statistics may be at their lowest level since 1989. But the figure is still substantially higher than in the mid-1980s, before the crack-cocaine epidemic began.
And there are other worrisome trends, such as the fact that the number of individuals murdered by strangers continues to grow.
After a brief respite from worrying about crime to celebrate the advances that have been made, there can be no let-up in the effort to make our neighborhoods and streets safer. But we can go forward cautiously optimistic that a concentration of efforts is producing positive results. by CNB