Posted on 05/14/2006 7:09:26 AM PDT by Sybeck1
When beer truck driver Wes McNeal was fighting for his life with an armed robber, he would have loved to have seen a blue and white Memphis Police cruiser turning the corner at Looney and Dunlap.
McNeal, a distributor for D. Canale Beverages, was robbed at gunpoint of $603 and about $1,000 in receipts. He was the second vendor victimized at that spot recently.
"It's a hot corner," McNeal said as he left the hospital for treatment of shoulder, elbow and face injuries. "I'm there, and I never see cruisers in the area."
McNeal was one of 10 people robbed May 3, and one of nearly 1,500 people robbed in Memphis this year.
Along with other violent crimes, those statistics are way up compared to the same time period in previous years.
In the first four months of 2006, compared to the first four months of last year, murders are up 43 percent, robberies of individuals are up 41 percent and robberies of businesses are up 81 percent, according to reports provided by the Memphis Police Department.
No one has a simple answer for what's driving the surge -- more drugs, more gangs, younger criminals -- but Memphis police are trying to fight the tide in nontraditional ways.
Last week, after a rash of business robberies in the Winchester-Hacks Cross area, business owners demanded more police patrols.
But the current thought among crime experts is that just putting more cops on the street isn't the solution, and that initiatives like Operation Blue Crush, in the long run, are better ways to prevent crime.
"We have outdated notions we are afraid to change," said Michael Heidingsfield, head of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, like how best to use officers. "Blue Crush is the most productive way."
Operation Blue Crush, which was introduced last fall by the Memphis Police Department and expanded in January, uses statistical data compiled by University of Memphis professors and graduate students to pinpoint "hot spot" areas of crime.
The system allows the Police Department to deploy "the right resources, at the right time, on the right day," says University of Memphis criminology professor Richard Janikowski, whose team of analysts provides police with info on where the real hot spots are.
"We are able to zero it down to the block level," he said.
Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin says the research is proven and will help officers make arrests and get drugs, gangs and guns off the streets, reducing crime.
Tommy Turner, who heads the Memphis Police Association, which represents more than 1,400 officers, doesn't doubt that efforts like Blue Crush can be effective, but he favors putting more uniformed officers on the street, where the people can see them and feel safe.
"Uniform patrol takes precedence; it's the first line of defense," he says. "You have to have more boots on the ground."
A review of recent roll call sheets obtained by The Commercial Appeal shows that precincts are sometimes spread so thin a single patrol car must cover two wards.
In the newly incorporated areas of the Northeast Precinct, now called Appling Farms, wards are lightly manned, many nights with only one person instead of two.
And Presidents Island, which is part of the West Precinct, or Union Station, is frequently without a police officer after midnight, even though it includes a residential area just west of Riverside Drive.
Godwin is not by any means advocating fewer street patrols, but he says police have to become more innovative in crime prevention.
Blue Crush, he says, allows the department to do two things new: partner with the community and incorporate uniformed beat cops into the program.
"We have to try something different," Godwin said. "We're going to keep doing what we are doing, and not lose sight of the apple."
Heidingsfield said the city should give Blue Crush at least a year before assessing its effectiveness.
Meanwhile, the rates of most violent crimes continue to climb.
In addition to the increased rates of homicides and robberies, reported aggravated assaults -- each one a potential homicide -- are up 11.6 percent (not including aggravated assaults relating to domestic violence), from 1,656 in the first four months of 2005 to 1,848 in 2006.
Last year, when aggravated assaults spiked to more than 200 a month, a special unit was formed to prosecute them. The Felony Assault Unit helped increase the number of solved cases dramatically, from 16 percent to 48 percent.
But the number of violent assaults has increased -- now there are more than 460 per month.
Rapes are down slightly to date in 2006, the only violent crime to show a decrease, 7.3 percent.
Incidences of property crime are flat or down, including auto theft, which has dropped by 16 percent.
-- Chris Conley: 529-2595
Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.
The bane of our society.
Young men idle, stoned, drunk, fatherless, jobless, uneducated, in/out of prison, having children with women who are the same kind of people.
Hmm, I noticed there's no reference to the race of the person who robbed the victim. Ok, there's been a sudden increase in crime over the past year so what else has risen in the past year? Could it be illegals?
I wonder how many Chocolate City refuges relocated in Memphis?
Houston is having the same problem.
IF the business community in that area wants to cut crime, there is always the option of contractiong w/a private security firm for foot/car patrols.
Just a thought. The ratio of police to private security is something like 70/30 and growing.
IDing high crime areas is a great idea,but how about some more pro-active measures?A friend of mine briefly drove a delivery truck for a liquor distributor in the Detroit area.After a spate of highjackings/roberies,the distibutor ID'd each truck with a number on top which was visible to police helicoptors,an armed employee rode shotgun,no stops in between,and the driver called in after each delivery.Certainly no cure,but i bet the same in Memphis would deter a lot of potential crooks.
>>>>>"Could it be illegals?"<<<<<
No, Far more likely Katrina Refugees.
TT
Memphis was a cesspool before last August. I really don't think Katrina could have brought killings up 43%.
>>>>>"I really don't think Katrina could have brought killings up 43%"<<<<<
I can think it.
Houston is getting hammered too!
Percentages are not as revealing as raw numbers. 43% of what? That could be 10 more killings or 50 more killings. Based on what I have read about Houston, some Katrina refugees are responsible for competing with local gangs, thus insuring warfare between the groups, which brings up the next question. Who is getting killed?
Political corruption is in decline because the Black Ford family has pretty much all been indicted.
Harold Jr is still alive and kicking but that too will pass.
Quagmire.
Memphis is the armpit of TN. I guess every state has one or two. Memphis is ours. We passed through there several years ago on our way home from Colorado. We ended up spending the night and both of us slept with a pistol under each pillow and a chair under the doorknob. I NEVER want to pass through there again. I'll take the long way around if necessary!
I doubt it is illegals. The areas identified are"totally" black areas of Memphis.
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