Columbus Dispatch: Crime in the country

Galvanized by a modest crime wave too close to home, 40 residents, including some victims, turned out for a recent community meeting in search of reassurance from Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen.

To residents’ way of thinking, crime is to be found on the mean streets of Columbus, not here — not among the pleasant cul-de-sacs of tended lawns, roomy two-story houses and late-model minivans and SUVs.

What, the residents asked Phalen, are you doing about this?

Overworked deputies, he told them, do all they can, but form only a second line of defense. Unlike urban areas, road deputies may be many miles and several minutes away.

There is too much territory to cover — too little county cash and too few deputies — to maintain the presence Phalen would prefer.

‘‘The best thing you can do,’’ he told the audience, ‘‘is to look out for each other.’’ With crime following the migration outward from Columbus, small police departments and sheriffs’ offices have been hard-pressed to keep up with the calls for service accompanying a stillspiraling population boom.

At Phalen’s public meeting, residents said they are looking out for one another. But they also are looking out for themselves.

Rottweilers, tougher dead-bolt locks, security systems and glass-block replacements for easily jimmied basement windows are among the anticrime steps listed by residents.

One homeowner, with graying hair and casual clothes, brings up the use of deadly force.

‘‘If he’s in the house and you shoot him — if you feel threatened — where do you stand?’’ he asked. Phalen’s response is to the point: ‘‘It would be appropriate to protect yourself.’’

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‘‘The biggest frustration is the lack of manpower,’’ said Phalen, whose wish list includes an addition of 15 to 20 road deputies to his staff of 40 patrol officers.

Phalen’s admonition for suburbanites to watch out for one another rings true with one expert.

Ohio State University rural criminologist Joseph Donnermeyer places little blame on law enforcement for failing to stem increasing crime. Rather, he believes suburbanites should look in the mirror.

‘‘The real issue is not if crime goes up because there is not enough law enforcement resources,’’ he said. ‘‘Crime goes up because communities lose their cohesion as they grow rapidly. People no longer communicate to each other and know each other. There is less guardianship. They are not looking out for each other and the collective good.’’

Delaware County Sheriff Al Myers blames nonstop home-building in the nation’s 10th fastest growing county for creating ‘‘targets of opportunity’’ for thieves, burglars and other criminals.

‘‘People ask me why we have so much crime....People still perceive Delaware County as the same as 10, 12 years ago, but it’s not. What drives crime? Opportunity.’’

Even after nearly doubling his patrol staff from 36 to 71 since 1993, Myers contends he needs 15 more patrol deputies to keep pace with what would be a record 24,000 calls this year.

‘‘They move away from the city to get away from the crime, but they still expect the same services of a metro police department, and that’s an impossibility,’’ he said.

Much the same in Pataskala County. ‘‘We’re very understaffed, and I think that’s common knowledge among the criminals,’’ said Pataskala Police Chief C.E. Forshey. ‘‘They come out here from Columbus and Newark because they think we’re an easy mark.’’

Safer neighborhoods and streets often are cited as reasons for abandoning urban life in favor of the suburbs.

However, the notion among some that crime is a rarity outside of the I-270 beltway is false, sheriffs say. In 2001, FBI figures show 30 percent of the crime in Franklin and surrounding counties occurred outside Columbus city limits.

‘‘Some of our victims say, ‘I moved away from the city to get rid of this stuff,’ ’’ said Madison County Sheriff Stephen Saltsman. ‘‘But crime is here and it’s always been here and they just don’t realize it.’’

OFCC PAC Commentary:
These law enforcement officers are confirming something we say often - only YOU can be counted on to protect yourself, your family, and your property.

Perhaps these municipalities and counties should adopt the same ordinance as Kennesaw, GA did more than 20 years ago, when that small community began to experience encroachment from urban criminals:

Since 1982, every household has been required by city ordinance to own a handgun. Crimes like those in the outlying central Ohio areas have remained at record lows ever since they plunged following passage of the law.

In fact, the number of some crimes in Kennesaw declined amid soaring population growth. Kennesaw had 54 burglaries in 1981 – the year before the gun ordinance – with a population of 5,242. In 1999, with a population of 19,000, only 36 burglaries were reported. The rate of violent crime is approximately four times lower than the state and national rates.

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