Kudos to Law Enforcers

Here at The Times, we have a love-hate relationship with crime stories. Under current management, we're trying to focus more on positive stories and less on negative ones. And anyway, we don't like the fact that crimes are happening around here any more than anyone else does.

But reporting on crime, such as the recent rash of thefts from cars in Day­ton, is important. Readers want to learn about these stories, and they need to. Besides, as most TV viewers would agree, the criminal mind is fascinating.

Crime stories can be positive too. For instance, it was with special plea­sure that we reported last month on the capture of three alleged car prowlers in Dayton, who were found in possession of stashes of stolen goods. And this week we're able to report that thefts from cars in Dayton have been pretty much non-existent since those arrests. The investigative efforts of Columbia County Sheriff's deputies in these cases were exemplary.

Another mostly good-news story was the capture and arrest of habitual criminal Skyler Glasby earlier this month after a high-speed chase from Columbia County into Waitsburg and back into Columbia County. The sharp eyes of a Columbia County deputy and the joint efforts of the Colulmbia and Walla Walla County sheriff's offices to capture Glasby were excellent examples of effective local law enforcement.

We'll continue our efforts report on kids doing good things at school and local service groups doing good things in the community. And we'll also keep reporting on local crime, as it happens.

We're sure that a lot of that reporting will be on the good work by our local law enforcers to solve those crimes and limit the number that we have to report.