Criminals back at work after brief lull

Criminals are back at work in many American cities after a brief lull following the terrorist attacks.

"You've got to understand that some people do this for a living," said Officer Rick Eckhard of the St. Louis County Police Department. "The president said go back and do what you do for a living, and since that's what they do, they're back doing it."

Cities like Kansas City, Mo., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Hartford, Conn., reported a slowdown in crime on Sept. 11 and in the days after. Many police departments did not have hard numbers but said the drop was modest in most places.

In Cape Girardeau, patrolman Jason Selzer said police didn't see a dramatic change.

Using statistics for major crimes -- homicide, rape, robberies, burglary, arson, stealing and auto theft -- Selzer said for local police it's been pretty much business as usual.

On Sept. 11, there were 14 thefts and one burglary reported. The Tuesday before, there were 11 thefts and one burglary.

On Sept. 12, there were five thefts, similar to the previous Wednesday, when there were four theft reports and one burglary.

Cape Girardeau's violent crime rate is already very low, but domestic abuse, assault and drug trafficking have remained as steady as ever.

The change was more apparent in the larger cities the week of the terrorist attacks.

Big cities see change

"That week it appeared that things did slow down somewhat," said Kansas City police spokesman Steve Young. "We're assuming that everybody was at home watching television, even criminals and potential victims."

On Tuesday, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cited statistics showing that violent crime had plunged in the two weeks since the attacks. During the week of the attacks, violent crime was down 17.5 percent compared with the same period a year ago, and officials attributed the drop in part to stepped-up police efforts. New York had four homicides last week, versus 10 in the same week last year.

Boston police spokeswoman Mariellen Burns said 1,514 crimes were reported from the day of the attacks through Sept. 15, compared with 1,609 during the same time a year ago. Burns said she had no more recent figures.

In Philadelphia, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney said the crime rate has not changed since the attacks, but bomb threats are up.

"Some whack jobs are out there calling these stupid things in," Timoney said. "We know it's a prank but still we've got to treat it seriously."

There is no easy way to determine why crime drops during a crisis, said John Galliher, a professor of sociology at the University of Missouri at Columbia. "I'd like to be able to tell you that criminals are patriotic and would stop committing crimes, but I can't tell you that."

John Kilburn, an assistant professor of criminology and sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University in Windham, Conn., noted that some crime rates dropped during World War II, with the murder level declining to about half of what it was during the Depression.

"Our aggressions are no longer on our neighbors, our partners or the guy next to us at the bar," Kilburn said.

War on drugs gets boost

In addition, America's war on terrorism appears to be helping the war on drugs, at least initially, as wary smugglers from Mexico avoid the risk of shipping their drugs across the border.

Under tight security with many more vehicle searches, the amount of drugs seized fell 80 percent along the 1,962-mile U.S.-Mexico border in the two weeks after the terrorist attacks, compared with the same period a year ago.

"The drug dealers, they're not stupid. They realize it would be risky to ship their stuff right now," said Kevin Bell, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service in Washington.

No one is suggesting drugs have become scarce in the United States. But authorities have long known that smugglers post spotters near border points to gauge security. Authorities expect the flow to surge again when the traffickers spot an opportunity, said Dean Boyd, a Customs official who analyzed seizure records along the border.

"The traffickers in Mexico don't want to sit on their product too long," Boyd said. "They've got to get it to market and pay their people."

Marijuana smugglers may not be able to wait much longer. The end of September marks their harvest season in Mexico and the dealers will be eager to move old supplies out of storage to make room for the fresh crop, said Jim Molesa, a Drug Enforcement Administration official in Phoenix.

"It's getting moldy," Molesa said of the old crop. "They're desperately going to want to get rid of it."

The temporary drop after the attacks was significant, officials said.

Inspectors at California's border crossings, seized 4,179 pounds of marijuana, cocaine and other drugs Sept. 11-23. That was an 86 percent decline from the same 13-day period last year.

Staff writer Andrea L. Buchanan contributed to this report.