MURDER RATE NO HIGHER THAN USUAL
BUT RASH OF KILLINGS SPARKS CONCERN ABOUT SECURITY
Byline: By Mike McCloy, THE PHOENIX GAZETTE
The death toll seems relentless.
Four members of a west Phoenix family slain in their home.
A young woman's battered body floating in a north Phoenix canal where another woman's head was found last fall.
A 6-year-old girl shot to death in her bed, the victim of random gunfire.
With more than a dozen murders in the past two weeks, is the best-run city in the world also vying for the title of most deadly?
''No, I think we're running close to where we were last year,'' Assistant Police Chief Dave Brewster said. ''We're going to be fairly close.''
There were 111 homicides in Phoenix through August, compared with 114 at the same time last year.
In the past five years, Phoenix has averaged 139 homicides a year -- a few more than Kansas City, Mo., a few less than San Diego. And a lot less than Dallas, where 500 die by violence annually.
There are nine murders for every 100,000 people in the Valley, according to the FBI's 1991 statistics. That's less than half the homicide rate in the Washington, D.C., Dallas, Houston and New York areas, and about one-third the rate in the New Orleans area.
''The average person around here does not need to worry about dying'' by violence, Brewster said. ''Most of the (off-duty) time, I don't even have a gun with me.''
But people are worried, according to gun and security alarm dealers, and backers of a Phoenix ballot proposition that would raise taxes to hire more police officers.
''We've had about a 30 or 40 percent increase in inquiries,'' said Keith Sagan, gun salesman at The Sportsman.
He said he's noticed an influx of women in the past 10 days that coincides with a spate of female victims.
Galen Buckey, Metrol Security Services president, said calls about burglar alarms are up about 20 percent, ''starting really about the middle of July, because we had a rash of burglaries in Scottsdale.''
A gun was the answer for 70-year-old Jessie Marie Bishop when Paul Romero ignored her warnings and began climbing in the window of her mobile home on Nov. 14. She shot him to death with a .22-caliber revolver and was not charged.
The tactic did not work so well for 23-year-old Keith Nichols of Glendale.
He fired a .22 at a silhouette outside his apartment window after he ordered party crashers to leave on Oct. 18. Asked by police whether he felt threatened, Nichols replied, ''Not really, but I didn't know what they wanted to do.''
Nichols faces sentencing next month for the reckless manslaughter of Sean Singleton, 20.
If you decide to arm yourself, ''use your best judgment,'' Brewster advised. ''Do you have kids? Have you taken a course? Do you know what you're doing?''
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget estimates there are 65 million gun owners in the United States, and Arizona's share, based on population, would be about 1 million.
Cynthia Schwartz and Richard Fox, two backers of Proposition 301, which will be on the Oct. 5 Phoenix ballot, predicted that recent high-publicity crimes will cause more people to vote for the proposal.
Proposition 301 would increase city sales taxes 0.1 percent to hire at least 200 additional police officers.
''I definitely think this will help 301 because this is the problem we're facing,'' Fox said.
Mike Petchel, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which supports Proposition 301, said the extra officers the measure would pay for won't end homicides.
''If someone is hellbent on killing someone else, they're going to find the means to do it, whether we have a thousand cops or not,'' Petchel said.
For most, the best defense against crime may be simple awareness and common sense.
Chris McGoey, a security consultant, has encountered some dangerous areas while checking out problems for owners of apartments and factories.
''I used to carry a concealed weapon,'' he said. ''But it gives people a false sense of security . . . I let my weapons permit expire.''
Chemical sprays such as Mace don't work either, McGoey said.
''Women usually carry them in their purse,'' he said. ''Ninety percent of the time, they never see the attacker coming. The attacker is usually behind you. You end up Macing yourself.''
Alarms may guard against burglars when you're gone, McGoey said, ''but most people don't set the alarm when they're home.''
He recommends upgrading locks at home. He also advises avoiding potential troublemakers whether driving or walking, and thinking twice about using an automated teller machine at night.
While Brewster agreed that awareness is important, he said residents do not need to be afraid.
''There is a chunk of society that is predatory,'' but most people feel they can walk their neighborhood at night without fear, he said.
''We don't want to foster the image that life is so dangerous that you have to lock yourself into your own little neighborhood at night,'' he said. ''We encourage people to have fun.''
Chart by THE PHOENIX GAZETTE (See microfilm)
Homicides in Phoenix / Number of murders per year since 1982