Murder is not the typical crime on Sunnybrook Road in East Raleigh, just as murder is not the typical crime in Raleigh. The fatal shootings last weekend in a suspected brothel off Sunnybrook were the exception.

Since 2001, police have logged more than 440 incident reports on Sunnybrook, according to our crime mapping database, (accessible at newsobserver.com/news). Most of them have originated in the stretch of Sunnybrook near New Bern Avenue. Burglary is a typical crime, as are motor vehicle break-ins, assaults and vandalism. The bad guys like to do business there.

Lord knows, I'm no criminologist. My familiarity with crime is limited to occasions when I would fill in on the police beat.

But I do know that places like the New Bern end of Sunnybrook make the paper only when there's a murder or a serious crime. It's slightly different in the case of Sunnybrook, because you'll see items in the paper reflecting this or that social services or medical facility clustered around WakeMed.

But you wouldn't know from reading the paper that the police are frequent visitors to Sunnybrook, often to these same offices after they have experienced break-ins or other crimes.

I talked with Raleigh council member James West about Sunnybrook, not so much about the recent fatal shootings but more about the typical crimes that police investigate.

Sunnybrook is in West's district, and it's worth noting there's lots to like about what's happening down at the Rock Quarry end of the road, where new subdivisions have popped up.

We talked about "quality of life" crimes, the kinds of crimes that don't make the news but drive law-abiding residents bonkers and make them afraid. These are the "broken window" types of crimes that, if left unchecked, lead to more serious crimes. "Little things lead to big things," is how he put it.

Brothels can't thrive in a neighborhood aggressively alert for suspicious activity. That's not true 100 percent of the time, but it's true enough of the time.

West believes that. He said we will never have enough police officers, if we expect them to do the job by themselves. They need the eyes and ears of activist neighborhoods. When criminals know a neighborhood is well organized, he said, they're less likely to prey on it.

Now, there is a lively debate as to whether this makes a big difference. Economic and demographic trends, you can argue, have more effect on the crime rate than community policing or vigilant neighborhoods. Let the scholars debate.

West, a scholar in his own right (he has a doctorate), has real-world experience. Besides working to help fragile, at-risk communities in his district organize themselves and become safer, he has seen this in his own neighborhood of Foxfire, down Rock Quarry from Sunnybrook.

The neighborhood was mostly owner-occupied in the early days, but over the years, that changed. Neighbors became strangers. West and other residents worked to organize the neighborhood. Block captains were appointed, festivals were held.

"We got back to the point where we knew each other," West said. You don't need to be a criminologist to know this is important.

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