Crime’s down in Atlanta, that’s the good news. However, statistics alone don’t stir many souls toward either fear or a sense of security.
What does get people going are violent shocks to their everyday world. Things like finding your home’s been ransacked, or facing a gunman on the sidewalk.
That such crimes are on the decrease is worth celebrating. Tempering the joy a bit is a recent outbreak of high-profile violent crimes — the carjacking of a city councilman, the murder of a popular boxer and a spate of robberies around Georgia Tech, among others.
So it’s understandable that citizens have grown concerned, even fearful. When people feel besieged, they react in varied ways. Some turn inward, buying intrusion alarms, guns or guard dogs.
Others reach out to strengthen community ties as a bulwark against crime. The rise in online social media has helped this happen. E-mail and blogs can quickly broadcast the tiniest bits of information about crime.
Engaged, relatively affluent communities are also likely to have high expectations of public safety. Well-organized community activists rightly expect that they will be listened to by police and city officials. They also expect action on their grievances.
And that’s where static seems to have crept into the lines of communication between police and some of the citizens they serve.
If people don’t feel safe, a computer’s worth of data and spreadsheets likely won’t persuade them otherwise. That’s where human contact and conversation comes in, starting at the top and spreading to cops on the beat.
Perception can trump reality if people’s emotions keep them from believing that crime really is on the run. The same thing happens when people come to believe their cops are not adequately engaged and visible.
No reasonable person expects Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington to spend his workdays in a patrol car, shagging radio calls and searching for the next big crime.
But, Atlanta needs a police chief who is more aggressively engaged in the public safety issues of the community.
He needs to be listening to the cops on the beat and the people in the neighborhoods, determining the best way to organize and direct his staff, so citizens are as safe as possible. The criminals need to feel the heat. And Chief Pennington would do well by the APD and the community it serves to make himself heard more often when situations all but beg for his presence.
Residents want to see their police chief large and in-charge, threatening to bring the full weight of the force down onto the scofflaws who’ve shocked the public with their increasingly brazen crimes.
And, yes, Pennington should point out often that the most outrageous offenses stand out, in part, because crime overall is down significantly in Atlanta.
High-profile crimes deserve a high-profile response. Doing so can pay off.
For one, it can hearten the activists in Atlanta who’ve come together to battle crime and keep neighborhoods informed about break-ins, robberies and the like. These are cops’ natural allies.
And, as part of the law-abiding majority who aren’t out plundering, murdering or otherwise keeping Pennington’s foot soldiers racing from call to call, they deserve better than his snappish response that “I want for all the critics to know that I have not checked out.” That’s a tough yet fair question to a chief who has announced he’s a short-timer, planning to leave at year’s end.
The last thing the chief and his department should want is for activists to clam up and shrug their shoulders in resignation or disgust. That’s a first major step toward decline and ceding streets to hoodlums.
If that happens, the downward trend of crime statistics might well turn upward, to the detriment of this city and region.
Therefore, it’s in all of our interest to do what we can to help reduce crime. Police and other agencies should strictly enforce the juvenile curfew and urge parents to take back their households. Teens roaming the streets late at night often leads to no good end.
Hammering at violent gangs can also help make the streets safer. And there should be close coordination with the rest of the criminal justice system to avoid revolving-door outcomes at jails and courthouses.
Despite the tragic spate of violent incidents that have bedeviled Atlanta in recent months, Chief Pennington and Mayor Franklin make a good point in preaching that crime is down from past years.
But let’s stop arguing about the numbers and figure out how to make them even smaller.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board
In coming weeks and months, we will look at major issues Atlanta must address in order to move forward as the economy recovers. Look for the designation "Atlanta Forward," which will identify these discussions. Send comments to atlantaforward@ajc.com.
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