The elected officials had stepped forward and delivered theirshort, familiar promises of triumph and the little crowd wasstarting to disperse when she stepped forward to ask her burningquestion.

The woman had braved Tuesday’s soaring temperatures and lateafternoon rain to become one of the only members of the public toattend Brookhaven’s inaugural National Night Out at the Centerpointoffices downtown. At a nationwide event designed to fight crime byfostering partnerships between communities and law enforcement, shesought an answer.

A break-in had occurred some time ago at her home at LincolnApartments on Old Wesson Road, and Brookhaven police have donenothing. Why?

“Some fellas were coming in through the windows. I thought Irecognized one of them,” said the unidentified woman.

Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson listened carefully, onfull alert, before asking his own questions. Were the policecalled? Yes. Did an officer show up? Yes. Did you give him the nameof the suspect you thought you recognized? No.

“I wasn’t sure,” the woman said, adding she didn’t want thewrong person to be arrested.

Henderson left his perch against the damp bricks and made hispoint, a point not just about her but about local law enforcementin general.

“We are professional law officers. We’re not going to go arrestsomeone without reason,” he said. “That’s what’s wrong inBrookhaven. Citizens want to help each other, but they don’t wantto help us.”

An unwillingness or timidity to give details to law enforcement- especially names of possible perpetrators – is a problem locallaw enforcement encounters often, Henderson said. He claimed hisofficers make arrests on better than 90 percent of burglaries andother crimes, but some criminals slip through the cracks whenvictims are afraid to tell all they know – even if it’s all theythink they know.

“Give us the information,” Henderson said. “We need leads; weneed names. Give us that name. Trust us.”

Henderson’s message was one Centerpoint Energy supportrepresentative and National Night Out Coordinator JenniferAlexander hopes will sink in. She’s never too far from the world oflaw enforcement – her brother, Tarrell Davis, is an officer inHazlehurst – and she knows sometimes victims of crimes are afraidto speak out against their assailants, especially if thoseassailants live in their neighborhoods.

“Sometimes people don’t call the police because they’re afraidfor their confidentiality,” Alexander said. “A lot of it I think ishearsay – they’ve heard people say, ‘The police don’t do anything,they’re part of it.'”

Alexander said Centerpoint decided to bring NNO to Brookhaven toclear up that misconception. The final push to organize the eventcame from recent high-profile crimes, namely the April 24 shootingof Eva Pullen and the July 9 robbery of Foster’s Chevron.

“You’ve got to find some sense of comfort in the people youelect,” she said.

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing pointed to a string of drugarrests made in early July as an example of how successful lawenforcement can be when the community chimes in. Law enforcementarrested around 30 people in the operation, all on evidencegathered through tips, reports and informants.

“It pointed us in the direction of some problem areas. Withoutcitizens letting us know about the traffic in some of those areasand things like that, we wouldn’t have known,” Rushing said. “Thegeneral public has to realize they’re not bothering us when theycall and say something doesn’t look right over here, or there’s alot of traffic over there.”