ANTI-CRIME EFFORTS APPEAR TO BE WORKING

There was welcome news at the end of 1997 that homicides in some of the nation's largest cities had dropped dramatically from the year before. A few other cities, though showed sharp gains. Overall, the trend across the country is downward for serious crimes.

One reason being mentioned for the overall drop in crime is community-based policing. This effort to put more officers in neighborhoods certainly is likely to have a positive effect.

But the overarching reason may be that the public at large was getting fed up with runaway crime, and taxpayers were letting city, county, state and national officials know they wanted action.

The result: More attention to crime prevention, dozens of new prisons and beefed up prosecution in virtually every area of the country. All of this indicates a concerted effort by the good guys can win out over the bad guys.