I received a phone call at home earlier this week from a long time friend who was irate at the Metro Police Department -- particularly its chief.

Video: Word On The Street (12/12/07)

My friend owns a grocery-restaurant at the edge of Davidson County.

They had caught a shoplifter and called 911 for a police officer to arrest the man.

He said it had been an hour-and-a-half and no officer had arrived, but an officer was seen up the highway giving a ticket to a motorist.

And what had the shoplifter stolen? A bottle of beer and two packages of chewing gum.

Why not just kick the man out of the store and tell him not to come back?

My friend was more upset about the no-show of the police than the shoplifter.

I tried to convince him that I believed traffic stops by police had slowed over the past year or so. I was wrong.

Actually, the stops are about the same as recent years: So far 235,000.

But only about 40 percent of those drivers are given only warnings instead of tickets.

More importantly, last year, about 24 percent of all traffic stops resulted in arrests for criminal activity.

I guess my friend is right that a theft is a theft, no matter how small.

But I couldn't convince him that a shoplifter stealing a bottle of beer and two packages of chewing gum rates pretty low on Metro's crime problems.