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Drugs, I-81 and growth fuel Franklin County crime rate

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A window appears to have been shot out of a car during a drive-by shooting in July in Chambersburg. (Photo: Markell DeLoatch, Public Opinion)

(Chambersburg) — Franklin County has a higher crime rate than its neighboring Pennsylvania counties.

It’s been that way for years, according to Lt. William McAreavy of the Pennsylvania State Police policy and program division in Harrisburg.

“What’s driving this is hard to know,” said McAreavy, the former chief investigator at the PSP station in Chambersburg.

The probable reasons: Drugs, Interstate 81 and growth.

State troopers been aware of the county’s reputation for years.

“I always heard Chambersburg station was a place nobody wanted to get assigned,” Franklin County District Attorney Matt Fogal said.

“It does come out as a bit of an anomaly,” McAreavy said. “This is Franklin County. In Adams County it’s not too bad. In Fulton County it’s not too bad. For some reason here in the middle you’re running around a lot.”

Franklin County hosts more crime than Cumberland County, its more populated neighbor to the north. Franklin County’s crime rate is double that of Cumberland County’s when it comes to burglary, theft, arson or serious crimes in general, according to data from the Uniform Crimes Report. The monthly average was figured from crimes reported for 2016 and 2017.

About three-fourths of property crimes, such as burglary or theft, “are in some way connected to narcotics,” McAreavy said.

“The underbelly of the drug culture is violence,” Fogal said. “It is about maintaining territory. The business model of drug culture is violence. Last month, marijuana of all things resulted in a homicide.”

Wesley D. Burnett, 20, of Hagerstown, Md., was killed in an exchange of gunfire on Oct. 20 on Grapevine Road in St. Thomas Township, according to state police. Police arrested four men in connection with the robbery during a marijuana deal.

Marijuana also figured in an earlier shooting. A Chambersburg man and a Waynesboro woman have been charged for a drive-by shooting in July in Chambersburg. The man was targeting a person he thought had stolen marijuana from him, according to Chambersburg police.

Franklin County had five homicides in 2016-17 compared to two in Fulton County and none in Cumberland, Adams and Huntingdon counties.

The region has few homicides, so an active year can skew the numbers, according to McAreavy. The year he joined state police in Chambersburg, Franklin County had 12 murders.

McAreavy spoke to the Franklin County Prison Board on Tuesday.

The Chambersburg area has been growing in recent years, McAreavy said. I-81 offers criminals and drug dealers easy access. People known for criminal activity in one state are not known in the neighboring state. For example, a West Virginia gang stole tools from Amish farms in Pennsylvania and sold the items to flea markets in West Virginia, according to McAreavy.

The nature of Franklin County poses problems for police and the local jail.

Clearing a burglary takes a lot of investigative time.

“You tend not to solve one burglary,” McAcreavy said. “You solve several burglaries” committed by the same gang.

State troopers in Franklin County tend to spend more reacting to crimes than patrolling to prevent crime, according to McAreavy. The county ranks 10th highest in time that troopers are obligated to deal with crimes already committed. The top-10 list features many of the state’s largest counties.

State police cover 87 percent of the land area in Pennsylvania.

Periodically the state Legislature considers bills that would encourage large municipalities to hire their own police forces.

Franklin County Jail, built in 2007, is full more than decade ahead of its designed capacity. On Nov. 5, the county had 509 inmates — 29 of them housed in five other county jails. In October the jail’s daily population averaged 497 inmates.

County judicial officials have proposed a “community corrections” center to relieve overcrowding at the jail. A building would more than 150 inmates – those on work release, those awaiting a home plan for release and those violating probation.

This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The Chambersburg Public Opinion

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