Notebook

To Serve and Protect

Statistics recently released by the St. Petersburg police department attest that there were 17%  fewer crime complaints filed in 1996 than in 1995, while the number of solved crimes was 1.4% higher. Police records show that homicides fell by 11.1%, to 833, last year, of which 371 were solved. But no matter how rosy the statistics may appear on paper (for example, police records indicate that of the 57,883 crimes committed in 1996, 52,544 were solved), the police have been questioning their accuracy and are heeding calls for greater vigilance.