County Wins One Round in the Fight Against Crime

Reactions to last week’s welcome news that serious crimes dropped more last year in Orange County’s biggest cities than across the nation was properly subdued.

Police, academic specialists in crime and criminals themselves say there are many reasons why people pick up a gun and hold up a bank or break into a house. The tactics that reduce the crime rate also are varied, and their success rates uncertain.

But the increasing safety of streets and homes is worth celebrating. That especially has been true in areas of the county’s big cities where gangs for too long dealt drugs, shot rivals and terrorized residents.

The drop in overall crimes in 1996 from 1995 ranged from 10% in Huntington Beach to 19% in Fullerton, according to the annual report by the FBI. Violent crimes decreased 17% in Anaheim and 11% in Santa Ana, though Huntington Beach and Irvine registered increases. The nationwide drop in violent crime was 7%, the FBI reported.

A number of the county’s big cities have moved to community policing in recent years. That involves putting more police on the streets, making them a presence in the neighborhoods rather than waiting at the station for calls for help. Supporters say residents respond by coming to view the police as allies and by becoming more willing to report suspicious incidents or strangers. It also can lead to an increased willingness to testify in court.

The need for cooperation from residents is one reason that departments have to step up their outreach to minorities, whose numbers have increased steadily in Orange County.

Last month, the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights heard a full day’s worth of complaints that law enforcement officials regularly harass Latino and Asian youths. Police chiefs said their officers were careful to observe everyone’s rights, and they defended an especially controversial practice: photographing suspected gang members and entering their profiles in a countywide database.

Police say most of those named have admitted to being gang members. Asian and Latino youths have complained that they have been stopped and questioned for no reason and photographed even when they did not belong to gangs. Last year, Garden Grove police agreed to photograph youngsters suspected of being gang members only with their written permission unless there is “reasonable suspicion” that they engaged in “criminal activity.” Police also are to provide an immediate written explanation.

That appears to be a good policy. Young men and women should not be stereotyped because of their race, but police need effective tools to battle gangs.

The success in cracking down on gangs can be seen in Santa Ana, where many of the record high number of 78 murders in 1993 were blamed on gangs. Through the first five months of this year, the number of homicides in Orange County’s biggest city was only six. At the same time last year, the number was 15; in 1995, it was an appalling 31. Two out of three of the slayings this year are being investigated as gang-related, police said.

Criminologists believe a drop in the number of teenagers and people in their early 20s leads to a drop in crime. That is probably one of the reasons violent crime in Orange County has been dropping, experts say.

But the trend will reverse before too long, with the number of teenagers increasing. That is why the studies of what combination of methods works best to fight crime must continue. Early intervention in the lives of at-risk youth, community policing and anti-gang programs take time and money. But it’s a necessary effort with a payoff where it counts most: personal safety.