Opinion: DA: Violent crime on rise, but victims often uncooperative

Social media platforms the past several weeks have been flooded with anecdotal reports of violence throughout Clovis. And yet arrests are not reflecting any uptick in crime. And city police have not issued a crime-related news release or public service announcement in more than a month.

District Attorney Andrea Reeb reports these are not necessarily conflicting observations.

“At the District Attorney’s Office, we have definitely seen an increase in violent crime in the last few months,” she wrote in an email responding to questions from The News last week.

“In general, the amount of ‘everyday type’ of arrests has not increased, but the amount of violent crime has risen. One of the reasons you may not see it on the jail logs is because the offenders have not been arrested. This is mainly due to uncooperative witnesses and victims who will not provide the information needed to get an arrest warrant.”

In other words, some city residents seem to prefer prairie justice to the public court system as they seek to right perceived wrongs.

Reeb and Deputy DA Brian Stover cited one incident that took place “a few weeks back” at the Clovis Apartments in which more than a dozen people were involved and at least five shots were fired.

Nearby surveillance video provided law enforcement with enough evidence to identify and arrest two people, she said, but none of the others could be detained.

“My belief is these witnesses don’t want police involved, want to handle it themselves, or won’t ‘rat’ people out,” Reeb wrote. “And yes, there is always a fear of retaliation if they cooperate. But it’s resulting in a lot of gun violence where arrests can’t be made. I don’t know the reason for the uptick in shootings and violent crime … I just know it is happening.”

There is some good news.

“These aren’t random victims,” Reeb wrote. “These people know each other or are aware of each other. So, I don’t think the average citizen needs to be concerned unless they are living a criminal lifestyle.”

The bad news is that innocent people can find themselves in dangerous situations.

“(I)n the Clovis apartment situation, a pizza driver was in the vicinity and I believe was around all the gun fire,” Reeb wrote. “Luckily the driver wasn’t hurt (no injuries were reported in that incident) … but you could definitely end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t know how you protect yourself from a situation like that one.”

Reeb has lived in Clovis most of her life and she’s worked as a Clovis prosecutor the past 25 years. She said she feels as safe today as she did growing up in the 1980s.

But those reports of violence we see on Facebook are not necessarily wrong.

Be careful out there.

— David Stevens

Publisher

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