Plunging crime rates a community accomplishment

There are crime rates, and then there are crime rates.

One correlates the number of incidents with the population base.

The other simply counts the crimes from year to year.

In Flagstaff, police do both, and the conclusion drawn from each is the same: Flagstaff is a much safer place now than it was five years ago.

That's a credit to not only the department but also numerous agencies and groups that have worked on prevention, prosecution and reducing the recidivism rate.

Skeptics might note that the crime rate across the United States and Arizona has been falling for much of the last decade. Flagstaff, they say, could just be along for the ride.

Except that the falloff here defies that explanation. In most categories, the rate of decline is two to three times greater than the national and state decreases.

Take grand theft auto. Five years ago there were 192 vehicles reported stolen in the Flagstaff; last year there were 62. For a city at the crossroads of two major interstates and a hub for regional commerce, that is an amazing statistic.

Burglary, another property crime tied to opportunity, fell from 499 incidents in 2006 to 225 last year. Larceny theft, which includes big-ticket shoplifting, fell by nearly 700 incidents. Arson was down 66 percent.

On the violent crime side, which often involves substance abuse, aggravated assault was off 43 percent in five years, robbery 44 percent.

As the Daily Sun reported during its coverage of Chief Brent Cooper's untimely death, the recent plunge in the crime rate coincides with his appointment five years ago and implementation of community policing. The department combined that technique with a computerized, block-by-block tracking system of incidents, allowing patrol officers and detectives to get out ahead of criminals -- or at least know better how to catch up with them.

The techniques don't make headlines or appear on most TV crime shows -- gaining the trust and cooperation of a neighborhood like Sunnyside is done one community meeting or sidewalk chat at a time.

The same goes for nabbing garden-variety criminals. A rise in auto break-ins, for example, means more unmarked stakeouts in parking lots, handing out brochures to residents telling them to lock their cars, and alerting apartment complex managers to report suspicious activity. The culprits are caught sooner, put away in prison, and the crime rate drops.

Or, over at the Guidance Center, there are new programs in place to sober up street alcoholics and get them on the road toward dealing with their addiction. At the jail, there's a new rehab program for drug addicts that looks to do the same thing.

The results show up in fewer drunken assaults and fewer petty thefts to support drug habits.

Does it cost any more to be that much safer? Yes, the $200,000-a-year in-custody rehab program is supported through a higher jail district sales tax. And several government agencies dip into their tax-supported budgets to help underwrite the detox program at the Guidance Center.

But remarkably, the police department has kept up the momentum behind falling crime rates even as city budget cuts resulted in fewer positions last year. The tradeoff, as we reported last Sunday, has been a rise this year in DUI-related collisions as officers make fewer traffic stops than in the past. Now that the trend is clear, area drivers can expect more traffic patrols at key times and in key corridors in the coming months, say police.

Before we pat ourselves on the back too much, however, it is important to note that Flagstaff's crime rates are in most categories still above the national and state averages. And when compared to similar, medium-sized university cities in the Mountain West, Flagstaff is generally less safe, sometimes by a significant margin.

Each city, of course, has its own demographic profile, police budget and other unique factors. But the comparisons are worth exploring further, if only for police officials to open lines of communications that might help when an emergency or special case arises.

On balance, though, it's hard to complain about crime rates in Flagstaff that are all headed in the right direction. No single person deserves all the credit, but we have to think that what Brent Cooper created and then directed at the police department for the past five years has played a major role. We'd hope that any search for a successor sets criteria that look to build on that legacy.