Stats are just that, they are stats. Who are the stats controlled by, the reporting agency, so yes they can be swayed or spun to fit whatever the topic for discussion may be. Because you can rest assured when any agency head goes to the city council, board of comissioners etc, they claim crime stats are up to get more positions. But when confronted by concerned constituents that same agency head will claim stats are down. First and foremost that agency head is a politician, elected or not, and it is all about keeping the residents happy. Here is an example or two that I have witnessed in my career:

Person breaks into a residence, but there are no good leads, lets title it a theft, they dont sound as bad. If we have good leads and can make an arrest lets call it a burglary, because catching a burglar makes good news.

You leave your purse on the front seat of your car and it gets stolen, but we have no suspects, we call it a theft. If i catch the subject in the act it is an Entering Auto charge, which is a felony and once again looks good in the Citizen.

DUI's are not down, there are no DUI task force officers in Fayette County. To say they are down is saying the crime has decreased, it hasnt there just aren't officers who are dedicated to making those arrests, they are tied up with the other non-existent crime in Fayetteville. I know for a fact a task force officer could average about 6 arrests Fri-Sun (DUI related). I know this becasue I averaged that for a substantial period of time.

Crime is down in the Pavilion, according to the stats, right? So the crime is down up there, but the crime stats are up in other areas now. I guarantee the stats in Cobblestone and Knights Way are up. Its great that the Pavilion issue has been toned down a bit, but to say crime in Fayetteville is down I dont believe is a fair statement to the citizens of Fayetteville and Fayette County.

Chief Heaton isnt a bad guy, and this isnt an attempt to make him look bad, but stats are just that, they are paperwork.

There's a lot of sayings about "statistics" but my question is, "Do we show a decrease in crime, or in "reported" crime?"

I've heard from a number of people in the Fayetteville area that many of the criminal activities do not show up on the crime statistics report. It's an old trick police chiefs use to "prove" their effectiveness and keep their jobs.

I personally am dubious of the stated "drop" in individual crimes between 2002 and 2007. I would like to know if those are "apples to apples" statistical reporting details. You can show a "Drop" if you add catagories and move crimes around... basically, there are a lot of ways to skew the figures.

I don't believe this report.

I keep looking for a Citizen story on the following - these people were arrested a couple of days ago.

"ATLANTA -- Investigators across the metro area are adding up cases of a suspected husband and wife robbery team.

The Fayetteville couple is in jail in Henry County as detectives from at least a half a dozen agencies look into armed robberies dating back to August of last year.

Roslyn Ford-Calhoun and her husband, Preston Calhoun, lived in nice home in a nice subdivision in Fayetteville. They were raising their teenage daughters and their elementary school-aged children as well, but police alleged, between the parent-teacher conferences and the soccer games, the couple were robbing stores.

"We figure anywhere from 10 to 15 that they've done," said Det. Ron Waddell with the Smyrna Police Department.

They were a couple that had no problem doing things together, police said. Officials said Roslyn Calhoun and Preston Calhoun had everything worked out and would rob stores, like the Smyrna Family Dollar. . . . " (from - http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15047961/detail.html)