Law enforcement officials say it's good news for once that Orangeburg County is being ranked nearly last in the state.

The number of murders in the past year remains low when compared to a decade ago, they report.

Domestic confrontation remains the foremost cause of homicide in the county, the local officials note.

Orangeburg County recorded nine homicides during 2007, the majority of which stemmed from a domestic altercation -- a far cry, police say, from the Dodge City of 15 years ago.

"I think law enforcement definitely had an impact in that," Sheriff Larry Williams said. "If you look at the circumstances, you don't have that 'suspect unknown' crime. All too often, when it's (murders) solved, it's an acquaintance."

This year's nine murders are a slight increase from last year's eight, but officials still eye the year 1992 when 23 murders were recorded.

In 2001, a study conducted by Justice Planning Associates, a Columbia-based firm that specializes in crime assessment and law enforcement planning, showed Orangeburg County second only to Washington, D.C. in violent crimes per capita.

In Orangeburg County, approximately 160 violent crimes per 10,000 persons were committed in 1999. Compare that to Washington with a rate of 163 per 10,000.

Perhaps it was because of the county's violent record that Orangeburg County was selected in 2001 to be a pilot county for a S.C. Department of Public Safety program aimed at putting a serious dent in violent crime.

The project, administered by JPA, has been a battle strategy aimed at making concerted rather than piecemeal attacks on crime. Law enforcement, the judicial system and the community were tapped for the effort, which was funded by a $450,000 federal grant awarded through the State Law Enforcement Division.

With 94 percent of crime being handled by the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office and the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety, those agencies became the primary focus for analyzing policy and strategy.

Officials said the ground level action taken was adopting a zero tolerance policy toward even the smallest of crimes. Attacking the smaller offenses, authorities concluded violent crime could potentially be prevented.

In 2004, there was a spike in the number of murders, which reached 21. But in 2005, that number fell to 14. Then to seven last year.

"I think there's a contribution of many factors," Williams said of the decline. "I believe there's a firm message out there of getting cases prosecuted, and we have shown we are very committed to getting these cases solved."

That message from law enforcement and prosecutors seems to be -- if you're caught, you're gone.

In 2007 alone, numbers for the First Circuit Solicitor's office show that eight cases were added to the court dockets of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties while nine went through court.

Since 2005, 25 new murder cases have been added to the docket in those two counties while 45 have been adjudicated.

Of those 45 that have been adjudicated, one person received the death penalty while two others were sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole. Six more were sentenced to 40 years or more.

First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said that not only has Orangeburg's former reputation as being a "Dodge City" gone the way of the dinosaur, but so has its image of having a poor conviction rate. The solicitor said the rate has, in fact, increased across the First Circuit.

"According to Court Administration, the trial conviction rate was less than 50 percent in Calhoun County prior to 2005," Pascoe said. "That's not the case now."

Of the 14 trials in Calhoun County since 2005, no defendant has been found not guilty. In Orangeburg County during that same time, 11 of 32 defendants were found to be not guilty.

Combined, the two counties chalked up a conviction rate higher than 80 percent.

The preliminary violent crime numbers for 2006 haven't gone unnoticed in Columbia.

In a memo dated Nov. 5, 2007, the S.C. Department of Public Safety congratulated the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office and the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety for dropping from number one in the state to 38th out of the state's 46 counties.

"It wasn't too many years ago, prior to our Violent Crime Reduction Initiative, that Orangeburg was No. 1 in the rankings and our goal was to take the county out of the top 10," wrote Burke Fitzpatrick, administrator of the SCDPS Office of Justice Programs. "You and your department, along with the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety, have far surpassed this goal."

Williams said the reduced number of murders says something for the community, which is nestled between Richland County and Charleston County, counties that have seen increases in homicides in recent years.

"People are changing their behavior" in this area, Williams said. "I don't want to toot my horn, toot law enforcement's horn and say it's all been law enforcement ...

"The bottom line, the message out there, is that if you commit murder, you will get caught."

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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