Many areas of society offer the chance for debate overperception versus reality, but few topics generate as much concernand consideration as when the subject is crime.

Since an April midday robbery and shooting of an elderly womanin downtown Brookhaven, and some subsequent events involving guns,citizens’ senses have been heightened and reports of criminalactivity have received greater scrutiny. The increased level ofawareness does not mean crime did not happen before, but a reviewof recent police department incident reports compared to the sameperiod in 2009 reveals some alarming trends.

The first three weeks of July 2010 indicated a 34 percentincrease in the overall number of reported cases of break-ins,burglaries, thefts, vandalism, gunshots complaints, firearmsdischarges and vehicle vandalism in relation to the same timeframelast year. Individual numbers on some of those activities showcause for even more concern.

Gunshots reports increased from three to five in the same-periodsurvey, while complaints about firearms discharged rose a whopping360 percent from three last year to 14 in July this year. Cases ofreported thefts jumped 16 percent to 28 this month, up from 24 lastJuly.

It is of course possible that some of these serious casesreported as one thing upon investigation turned out to be lesserincidents or no crime at all, such as a vehicle’s exhaustbackfiring being mistaken for a weapon discharge. By the sametoken, incidents reported as complaints or disturbances mayactually have been assaults or some other violent activity.

Nevertheless, despite the dedicated efforts of the city’s lawenforcement agency, the perception is that crime is on the rise inBrookhaven. The survey of the department’s incident reportsstrongly suggests that perception is now reality.

To better track incidents of serious activity in the city, todayThe DAILY LEADER is implementing a Crime Watch listing seenelsewhere on this page. The listing will highlight the nature, timeand place of the case and, if known, the ultimate result.

The possibility of being a victim of increasing violent crime inthe city is frightening for citizens and the thought of coming hometo a broken into or burglarized residence is equally asdisturbing.

Neither scenario is acceptable in the community that callsitself “Homeseekers Paradise.” It is past time for city leaders -most notably the board of aldermen – to give the crime surge matterthe attention it so desperately deserves.