The Garden City Telegram

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Officials: New residents bring an increase in certain crimes

Published 6/17/2009 in Local News : Police

By SHAJIA AHMAD

sahmad@gctelegram.com

Some law enforcement officials believe new residents to Garden City may be to blame for burgeoning crime in the area.

Finney County Attorney John Wheeler told county officials during last week's County Commission meeting that law enforcement agencies, including his, are seeing violent crimes and drug activity with increasing frequency and partly attributed the cropping problem to out-of-area residents who've been recruited to the area to work.

Wheeler declined an interview, saying he did not wish to elaborate on his observations at this time, but said during the county meeting that in many of the cases that come across his and his staff's desk — including a February shooting death he cited — the offenders have moved to Garden City from outside the area to work and have brought extensive criminal records with them.

In connection with an early February shooting at Apple Garden Apartments, Lucas Kevin Chavez, 24, 2615 N. Main St., Apt. 6F, was arrested and charged with the shooting death of Phillip Maurice Brown.

Friends said Brown had moved to Garden City in the spring of 2008 from Chicago to work at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant near Holcomb and started working in late April, according to human resource officials at the plant.

Wheeler mentioned during last week's meeting that Chavez also was not from the area but made no further comment to The Telegram about his origins or length of stay in Garden City prior to the shooting he will stand trial for in July.

Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue agreed with the county attorney's observations, he said, but declined to identify employers, as well.

"Some of the folks we're dealing with have been brought here to work, maybe in the past couple of years, from Los Angeles and the Chicago area," Bascue said, adding that the population has exacerbated an already existing drug problem in the area by increasing its customer base.

"What we're finding is that some of these folks aren't necessarily selling drugs but have drug problems themselves, so there's an increased level of activity," he said.

Recruiting

Tyson, one of Finney County's largest employers, said while it has for many years solicited workers from other states, the business has not recruited employees from out of the immediate area for the last six months.

"In the past, we've recruited in other parts of the country where there's a higher rate of unemployment and a greater availability of people looking for stable, long-term employment," Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for the Springdale, Ark.,-based company, said in an e-mail. "However, the vast majority of the people we hire at our Finney County beef operation apply locally."

Mickelson said employees who shift cities or states to work at the plant where nearly 3,100 are employed is a relatively small percentage of the overall workforce, but would not offer that percentage or report from where the meat-packing plant recruits.

In addition, out-of-area recruits are offered bus tickets to Finney County, as well as temporary housing, Mickelson added, and also are provided with the first month of rent and a security deposit. A month of free bus rides to and from work and assistance with more permanent housing also are provided for workers who seek the help, Mickelson said.

If employees from outside the immediate area is terminated, they may also be assisted with transportation back to their prior state or city at company expense, Mickelson said.

While plant officials do question applicants about felony offense convictions, they do not necessarily decline them employment based on that information.

"If they indicate they have, then we ask for additional information," Mickelson said in an e-mail. "We believe very few of the people we've hired from outside the area have criminal records."

Population changes

Sheriff Bascue said his law enforcement agency anticipates an increase in criminal activity when large area construction projects, such as the proposed Sunflower plant and USD 457's planned high school, hit the area.

When a hail storm last May brought an influx of workers to Garden City to replace damaged roofs, Bascue said, his office handled a minor but expected increase in theft and burglary cases. Whatever the socioeconomic, racial or other dynamics of those individuals are, Bascue said, heightened enforcement activity follows transient populations.

The sheriff added that area businesses do not consult law enforcement agencies about their recruitment practices.

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