Homicide total is skewed by city (limits)

January 04, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

(edited for space- click here to read the entire story in the Columbus Dispatch)

The death of Gail Knisley, who was shot Nov. 25 as she rode in a car on the south Outerbelt, was one of the most highly publicized homicides of the year in central Ohio.

But it isn’t among the 112 slayings recorded in the city of Columbus in 2003.

Knisley was shot just outside the city limits, in Jackson Township.

Her death is one of 16 homicides that occurred last year in Franklin County communities outside Columbus.

And in the metropolitan area, there were another nine homicides in the surrounding six counties in 2003. There were two each in Delaware, Fairfield, and Madison counties and one each in Licking, Pickaway and Union counties.

Some of the Franklin County slayings took place in communities so deeply embedded among Columbus neighborhoods that many people passing through — or even living there — might assume they’re in Columbus.

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Lee Bailey of Gahanna, former director of the Citizens League of Greater Cleveland, is among those who say homicide statistics would have more meaning if they included numbers for the entire county.

‘‘The crazy patchwork quilt of corporate and township limits around Columbus is mind-boggling," he said. ‘‘You can drive across Franklin County and enter and leave the city a number of times."

Five homicides were recorded last year in a section of Clinton Township that is encircled by North Side neighborhoods, including North Linden. The township’s character and crime along Cleveland Avenue are indistinguishable from adjacent land in the city, but its homicides aren’t part of the city’s total.

‘‘Most citizens don’t know what jurisdiction is where," said Lt. Anthony Pfeifer of the Clinton Township Police Department. ‘‘We’re affected by the neighborhoods around us. I’ve heard us described as ‘little Columbus.’ "

Franklin Township Police Chief Michael Castle, whose department investigated one homicide in 2003, said there is plenty of public confusion and misunderstanding about where corporation lines begin and end in Franklin County.

‘‘All types of villages and townships are pocketed within the city," he said. ‘‘If you’re going to use stats, they should be for Franklin County, period."

Commentary:
The City of Toledo is also manipulating their homicide totals. For example, Toledo's police bureaucrats aren’t counting the Aug. 17 death of Stephanie Autman, 37. She died after a struggle in the 1000 block of Indiana Avenue with a man who accused her of taking money from him. Derrancie McNeal, 25, was indicted for her murder. Her death isn’t included in the total because she died in part because of health complications, officials said.

While the number of homicides in the city (23-25, depending on who is counting) decreased by 4 from 2002, the tally is still higher than in 2000, when the total was "about a dozen."

"Any decrease is good news," Police Chief Mike Navarre said.