Austin’s crime not unique
Published 12:00 am Sunday, July 9, 2000
Austin is not unique as far as violent crime goes.
Sunday, July 09, 2000
Austin is not unique as far as violent crime goes.
There was a double homicide in Owatonna in January of this year as well as a murder and an attempted murder in Faribault last year. Both towns are roughly the same size as Austin. In Waseca – a town of 8,500 – last year’s murder of little Callie Jo Larson was the first in the memory of Police Chief James Staloch.
In Owatonna, the double homicide followed a night of partying and an argument. In Waseca it was a random attack. In Faribault the murder was the result of a drug deal gone bad, and in Austin the June 30 double murder followed one man’s encounter with a prostitute.
Bad things happen everywhere.
"People generally don’t want to believe these things will happen in their town," Faribault Police Chief Harry Algyer said. "But the size of a town doesn’t dictate the seriousness of the crime, although it may dictate the frequency."
In Austin – with four murders in as many years – these things may be more frequent, but still, Austin isn’t alone with its small town violent crimes.
However, compare Austin to other southern Minnesota towns in terms of prostitution, and SPAMTOWN USA comes out on top.
A poll of several southern Minnesota police chiefs revealed that these other towns – Albert Lea, Owatonna, Faribault and Waseca – don’t appear to have the problem with prostitution that Austin does.
None of the other policemen were saying that prostitution doesn’t exist in their communities; just that it wasn’t an obvious problem.
"That type of crime is very hard to track," Owatonna Police Chief Gene Fisher said. "It’s between two people and isn’t usually reported. It would be naive, though, to say that any community doesn’t have prostitution," he added.
Fisher is in his 33rd year in Owatonna; he blames some of the problems on the gang and drug elements that are moving out of bigger cities like Detroit and Chicago into smaller towns in the Midwest.
Others put part of the blame on the strip bars.
In Waseca the police chief remembered one prostitution arrest in 25 years, but he wasn’t surprised that prostitution preceded the July 1 Austin murders.
"Was she an exotic dancer in one of your bars?" was the first thing he asked.
"You have to ask yourself, ‘Does that kind of environment bring prostitution and these other problems to a community?’" he continued. "I make the connection, not scientifically for sure, but knowing that exotic dancers sometimes engage in that type of activity."
Of the four other cities, only Albert Lea has a strip bar, but Assistant Police Chief Dwaine Winkels said the only calls about prostitutes he’s had came from the truck stops, not the strip bar.
"The owner of the Aragon runs a pretty tight ship," he said. "I know the dancers are escorted back to the place they’re staying each night."
Faribault Police Chief Harry Algyer came to Faribault nearly six years ago and worked in Rochester before that. He didn’t think there had been any prostitution arrests in Faribault in his time there, but he recalled that prostitutes followed a "circuit" when he worked in Rochester.
"They would go down I-35 into Iowa, up along Highway 52 through Rochester and on over to LaCrosse," he said.
He didn’t mention Austin, but there are those who believe this southern Minnesota city is a destination for men and women involved in both drugs and prostitution.
Police Chief Paul Philipp is one of those people.
Philipp said there was no magic answer to the issues facing Austin. Additional police officers would certainly help – the city council has determined that 28 officers is the right number, however, due to retirement, sick leave and one vacancy, the Austin Police Department is operating with 24 officers – as would some ordinance changes, Philipp said.
With the shortage of police officers, shifts are often running with the bare minimum: three officers between 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. and four from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m.
In the past the police chief has asked the council to budget for more staff, but the need to keep taxes down always took precedence.
"The city has worked very hard to hold the line on taxes … but when you hold the line and costs increase every year, it has to come from someplace," Philipp said.
"I don’t want people to think hiring a couple additional police officers will magically make the world a better place; it would make our job easier.
"Everyone in the community – citizens, clergy, the police – we all need to work harder to curb violence. That’s not much of an answer, but that’s the best I can give you right now."