Stop crime before it starts: City needs more than more cops
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Policing experts agree: the best way to reduce crime is to the stop it before it happens. Intervening before a young person on the edge turn to a life of crime is the best course for a safe and prosperous city. However, changing hearts and minds before somebody gets hurt is more difficult than raising a cop's pay or buying a squad car. Just this week, that reality was reinforced when a coalition of ministers, law enforcement officials and concerned citizens met to discuss an uptick in violence in 2008, including nine local homicide victims whose lives were cut short by a bullet. The consensus sounded Thursday night at the "Stop the Violence" roundtable was that we can't arrest our way out of Anniston's growing crime problem. The Rev. Jeffrey Williams owns Anniston Funeral Services, the scene of Thursday's meeting. He said, "We just funeralized a young man yesterday that was murdered, and it bothers me. As a funeral director, I don't need the business that bad." Well said, reverend. What's needed is a multi-part plan addressing the root causes of crime — poverty and poor education. The statistics bear out that Anniston is falling short on both counts. According to the Census Bureau, approximately 1-in-5 city residents live in poverty. The most recent Alabama Department of Education report, from 2005-2006, finds that 83.4 percent of Anniston City School District students qualify for free or reduced meals, more than 30 percentage points above the state average. The state has projected than three out of every 10 Anniston students who started the ninth grade in 2004 will not graduate high school this spring. What will become of those failed students? Crime is not the only answer for these dropouts, but its chances are increased when opportunity is limited. In this way, policing becomes more than arresting bad guys after a crime is committed. Schooling is about more than passing children from one grade to the next via standardized tests. Afterschool outreach programs are about more than fun and games. Trying to stop law-breaking before it happens requires looking at the whole and how these and other parts of city government are organized. Thursday's "Stop the Violence" is a commendable first step. The organizers promise the dialogue will continue, as soon as next week. It's time for more to join the conversation. Combating crime The story so far: In the first two parts of the series, the editorial board considered Anniston's crime problem and how its police force has faced personnel shortages in recent years. |
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