Historical September 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Editor: The week of Aug. 20 the Globe-Democrat published an article with the headline “Crime Hits 2 Areas of SafeStreet.” This article was extremely misleading in that the reporter used only the burglary rate for the month of June and used it as an overall crime statistic. Crime statisticians tell us, that to accurately measure crime, one full year’s total must be used, as the extremes in the weather can be large factors in the number of crimes committed.
The fact is that total crime is down 19 percent in Skinker-DeBaliviere for the first six months of this year. Total crimes for January through June 1983 were 241, total for the same period this year is 195, resulting in 46 fewer victims of crime. Burglary was up in June and July from 20 last year to 38 this year. Burglary has leveled off in August and is still down 11 percent over last year. Of the seven crime categories being tracked, Skinker-DeBaliviere is down in 6 of them. Homicide is the only category up from last year, 0 in ’83, 1 in ’84, a crime of passion, wife against husband.
The controversy began over a flyer distributed in Skinker-DeBaliviere by Operation SafeStreet, which listed the blocks that were experiencing a sudden increase in burglary and asked neighbors to be especially aware and call the police when they see or hear anything suspicious. Operation SafeStreet is committed to keeping residents informed of the problems in their neighborhood.
We will continue to make them aware when we see a problem developing. That flyer did not mean the program is not working.
It means it is working, because our information network is spreading the word successfully to help neighbors fight crime — that’s what Operation SafeStreet is all about. Sincerely, Lucille Green Director OPERATION SAFESTREET
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, September 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1984_09.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
