Robberies Up 18% In Marion County

CRIME SOARS: POLICE BLAME DRUGS, BUT SOME SAY LIGHT SENTENCES ARE AT
FAULT AS WELL

Rick Singh continues to work at the convenience store where his
cousin was shot to death last month, haunted by the bloody images of
the robbery.

"I saw the video. I have images of it every single day," said Singh,
24. "You never know when somebody will come in and put a gun to your head."

Armed robberies in Marion County -- some of them with deadly
consequences -- are up 18 percent over the first 10 months of this
year compared with same time period a year ago.

In addition to Palwinder "Raj" Singh, 22, three men have been killed
in robberies in Marion County over the past month: another
businessman, a retired dance instructor and a construction worker
from Illinois.

Indianapolis Police Department detectives have investigated 992 armed
robberies so far this year, up from 800 over the same 10-month period
in 2004 -- a 24 percent increase. One weekend last month, there were
43 armed robberies.

The spike in violence comes at a time when violent crime seems to be
going down nationally. Robberies nationwide also are on the decline.

Sgt. Columbus Ricks, a supervisor of the nine-detective squad that
handles most of the robbery cases for IPD, said officers are doing
all they can.

"Less than 1 percent of the population is doing all these crimes,"
Ricks said. "The public is going to be the people who (help) put
these criminals away."

The reasons for the increase are tough to pinpoint, but Ricks and
others blame illegal drugs.

"Drugs seem to be the motivating factor behind the majority of these
robberies," said Speedway Police Chief Jeffrey Dine, whose department
saw 36 robberies through October of this year compared with 20 over
the same time period in 2004. "Unfortunately, people don't seem to
value other people's property or other people's lives very much anymore."

Some suburban police departments outside of Marion County are
experiencing increases too, but what they are seeing doesn't compare
in size and scope with what is happening in areas patrolled by city
police and the Marion County Sheriff's Department. In part, the
difference is leading some criminal justice officials to offer a
third potential explanation for the increase in robberies: inadequate
punishment for lesser crimes and limited jail space in Marion
County's overburdened court system.

The Human Cost

Four recent robberies that crossed racial and demographic lines
exemplify the toll this crime wave is taking:

* Marion County sheriff's deputies say Jeffrey A. Treadway, 46, stole
about $200 after he beat 82-year-old Donald Carroll with a brick Oct.
15 inside his home in the 6000 block of East Washington Street.
Carroll, a World War II veteran and former dance instructor, died the
next day from head injuries.

* Police say Joseph Pryor was looking for drugs Oct. 16 when he used
a stolen passkey to enter room 247 at the Speedway Super 8 Motel,
2602 N. High School Road. Once inside, Pryor fatally stabbed James
Santelli, a construction worker from Illinois who was in town to
install windows at an Indianapolis high school, police say. The take:
about $150.

* Singh was killed in his family's convenience store Oct. 22 after
three men came into the Eastside shop waving a gun and demanding
money. During a struggle for the gun, Singh was shot. The robber got
no money. Adam Rogers, 22, Indianapolis, has been charged in Singh's slaying.

* Clarence Williams Jr., 43, a Haughville community leader, was
fatally shot Oct. 26 in his restaurant at 10th Street and King
Avenue. Edrick Williams, 23, said he shot Williams, no relation, to
give himself more time to escape when the robbery turned out to be
more difficult to pull off than he had imagined.

"I guess people are in more desperate need of resources," said Olgen
Williams, executive director of Christamore House, a social service
center in Haughville. He is not related to either man. "They are
predators. Predators have no respect for a person. They feel this is
the easy way."

The effect of the armed robberies can go well beyond the people
involved, Williams said. Some business owners have reacted by
installing bulletproof glass, which protects clerks but sends an
unspoken message to customers and others that neighborhoods are not safe.

"Outside people don't want to spend money in your community, which in
turn impacts that business," Williams said. "It's a great concern."

The Singh family will be adding bulletproof glass around the cash
register at their Tobacco Road gas station, 3155 English Ave. But the
new barrier isn't likely to make anyone in the family feel much better.

"It's been really hard," said Rick Singh, who was the last family
member to see Raj Singh alive when he left the shop hours before the
botched robbery.

Rick Singh knows it could have been him. He was behind the counter in
August when robbers hit the store.

Drugs And The Economy

Nationally, the rate of violent crime declined about 2 percentage
points last year, continuing a decade-long trend for serious
offenses, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, a compilation
of crime data provided by state and local law enforcement agencies.

Last year, there were 401,326 robberies nationally, down about 13,000
from 2003. The robbery rate declined by 4 percentage points, to about
137 for every 100,000 people.

Robert B. Turner, the city's public safety director, blames "larger
and larger quantities of drugs" such as crack and methamphetamine
flowing into Marion County for the increase in property crimes like
auto theft and burglary -- and, now, robberies.

"People want things right away. They want things they have not
earned," he said. "I don't think there's a simple solution. There
will always be peaks in crime."

Indianapolis' lagging local economy may be another factor driving the trend.

Ricks, the IPD robbery section supervisor, said younger men -- late
teens to early 20s -- are committing many of the robberies. Ricks
said the young robbers typically have poor educations and no skills
to obtain high-paying jobs. He said they view crime as a means to
quick, easy money.

Marion County's unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in August, slightly
higher than the state and national rates of about 5 percent, a level
at which the labor force is generally considered fully employed.

An Indiana University economist says local pocketbooks have taken a
beating over the past several years, with the bankruptcy of ATA
Airlines and the sales of Galyans Trading Co. and Great Lakes
Chemical Co. eliminating many high paying jobs. That, in turn, has
reduced demand for fast food and other goods and services provided by
lower-paid workers.

Economist Phil Powell of IU's Kelley School of Business said the
Indianapolis-area economy is "anemic." The median family income for
Central Indiana families declined by $2,240 from 2002 to 2003,
compared with a drop of $491 per family nationally.

Lagging Sentences

Nearby counties have not experienced the same explosive growth in
armed robberies. The number of Hendricks County holdups has gone up,
for example, but that seems mostly related to the rapid population
growth. There has been little spillover from Marion County, said
Prosecutor Patricia Baldwin.

Johnson County authorities noticed an increase in robbers coming from
Marion County last year, when the number of robberies reported
reached 21, up from 14 in 2003, Prosecutor Lance Hamner said.

But so far this year, 10 robberies have been reported. Hamner
attributes the decrease to stiffer sentences for robbery than Marion
County hands out: "You cross the line, and you'll do twice the time."

He said Johnson County armed robbery sentences average 13.5 years.
First offenders in Marion County are more likely to get six-year
sentences, unless confinement or other extenuating circumstances are
involved. Repeat offenders are more likely to get 10 years in prison.

No one should be surprised by the increase in armed robberies
locally, said Jason Hutchens, deputy director of research and public
policy for the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, a state planning agency.

The word is out in Marion County that "there's not a lot of
punishment out there" because the Marion County Jail is full, said
Hutchens, who used to coordinate the county's anti-violence efforts.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said he's trying to deliver a
stronger message by seeking life in prison without parole against
defendants in the four recent robbery cases that resulted in deaths.

"I think we need more police officers, not less. We need more jail
beds, not less. We need extra patrols. We need to be on the streets,"
Brizzi said.

"For the past two years, we've been under this jail cap where every
person who's been arrested for auto theft, burglary and other
non-violent offenses has been released within hours," Brizzi said.
"When they fail to appear for court, there are no consequences
because you have to let out a violent offender to put them in jail.."

The increase in robberies also comes as Mayor Bart Peterson pushes
for consolidating IPD and the Sheriff's Department in an effort to
stretch limited tax dollars further.

Deputy Mayor Steve Campbell said the city can't combat increases in
crime by maintaining the status quo.

"We have a choice of laying off more officers or making a change," he
said. "Consolidation allows us to build a strong financial footing so
we can build up the police force in the future."

Otherwise, he said, the city will continue to have to employ fewer
officers and won't be able to react to specific crime problems.

Opponents of Peterson's merger plan question whether savings will
really materialize, maintaining the idea leaves too many unanswered
questions about police protection.