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CRIME TRENDS ARE DOWN, BUT MORE WORK TO BE DONE

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, September 12, 2009 9:57 PM CDT

Regardless of where you go in Pine Bluff, or who you talk to, the subject of crime in the city invariably comes up.

Pine Bluff police officers Deputy Chief Sonny Hudgens (left) and Detective Sgt. Chuck Cash search a crime scene following a shooting in Dec. 2007. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

It was considered so important that the city’s strategic planning process — the Pine Bluff 20/20 Initiative — made reducing crime by 8 percent one of its top priorities. So far in 2009, police report that crime is down about 4 percent.

Three factors are being cited as reasons for the encouraging trend — tougher curfew enforcement, more jail space and more police officers.

The progress has given a lift to law enforcement officials, but it’s just a beginning, they say.

“We’re not trying to hide the fact that we’ve got crime; we do,” police spokesman Lt. Bob Rawlinson said. “Every major city has a crime problem, and a drug problem, and we’re not any different.”

Pine Bluff’s size feeds the perception that it’s crime problem is worse than it is, according to one local educator, who used to be a police officer.

“We take a hit because they compare our numbers against Chicago for example,” said Steve Sumner, coordinator of the Public Service Technology Department at Southeast Arkansas College.

Regardless of the numbers, police, prosecutors, judges and others agree that there are a number of factors that contribute to crime.

It all begins with drugs, however.

“I’ve said this over and over again, drugs are killing us,” said Prosecuting Attorney Steve Dalrymple, who has worked 30 years in the judicial system as a prosecutor, deputy prosecutor, and judge, and who recently announced he would not seek another four-year term.

The problem of drugs is not just confined to adults either. Juvenile Judge Earnest E. Brown Jr. said the vast majority of the juveniles that come through his court are involved in drugs.

“That’s the thing that really knocks me off my feet,” Brown said.

If drugs are the major factor, crimes involving juveniles, especially burglaries and thefts, figure high on the list, too, Brown and others said.

“If crimes like that are committed by young people, they’re not master criminals and they get caught, or they talk, or they pawn the stuff and they get caught,” said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Hunter. “From a prosecution standpoint, we’ve got to do our part to slow that down.”

Add to that mix the number of homicides reported each year, many of them involving young black men killed by other young black men.

“There’s not an outrage of the use of violence in general because in a sense, I think the public is saying these are two individuals with differences because most of our acts involve people who know each other,” Dalrymple said.

Fear of testifying in court and a public that can seem indifferent are also factors. Adding to that is the number of people who fail to take advantage of the opportunities they’re given, especially people placed on probation who end up having that probation revoked, officials say.

“There’s help being offered them and they just don’t seem to want to take it,” Deputy Prosecutor Cymber Gieringer said.

There’s also a perception that things and conditions are better in other places, according to a number of people interviewed.

“There’s a lot of good in Pine Bluff, but we’re not focusing on it,” juvenile prosecutor Brandon Robinson said. “Things are changing here.”

In this report, we will look at all those factors, and at some of the things that are being done to reduce crime and make Pine Bluff a safer place to live.

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