But the committee’s participants aren’t merely watching. They’re doing — and planning to do a lot more. After a series of workshops, the committee has targeted seven specific areas it will focus on to make Salisbury a safer, more harmonious city.

These include: promoting greater understanding among diverse cultures, reducing at-risk behavior among youth, strengthening community “ownership” of neighborhoods, developing ways to reduce recidivism, providing more support for crime victims, and strengthening family structures.

All of the goals are valuable, but those aimed at bridging cultural divides and targeting at-risk youth behaviors seem especially timely. The rapid influx of immigrants, particularly Hispanics, has increased racial tensions in communities around the country. The most recent flare-up was in Siler City, where an anti-immigration rally was held last week.

In the area of at-risk youth, a new study from Columbia University offered the startling conclusion that drug and alcohol use is now higher among teens in rural areas and small towns than in large urban centers.

The committee’s work shows that crime and related ills can’t be viewed as simply a policing or judicial system problem. Crime inevitably is intertwined with many other factors, such as neighborhood stability, family stability, parenting skills and the resources that we devote to caring for and educating youth.

In targeting those areas, citizen involvement is crucial — which brings up yet another goal: Getting more citizens involved in this process, particularly in those neighborhoods most plagued by crime and the conditions of neglect that may give rise to it.

“We’re not connecting with a lot of the group that needs to be here,” police Lt. Sonny Safrit said at the committee’s Saturday meeting.