SHENANGO VALLEY — Despite recent newspaper headlines, District Attorney Bob Kochems told a group of Farrell residents that Mercer County remains one of the safest places to live in the country.

A guest speaker at the monthly task force crime watch group, Kochems said reports of a gunfight on Roemer Boulevard, shots fired at police on Emerson Avenue and a shooting on Hamilton Avenue in recent weeks are nothing to be proud of, but do not represent increased danger to the public.

“It’s a case of them shooting each other,” he said, noting that people who are not “involved in the drug culture” have nothing to fear. “If you’re not involved in that, you have no reason to be afraid,” he said.

Both Kochems and Southwest Mercer County Regional Police Chief Riley Smoot said the community’s unwillingness to share information with law enforcement hinders the efforts to solve or prevent crimes.

Smoot said in a majority of cases, and in particular the recent spate of shootings, witnesses will not come forward and admit that they know anything for fear of retaliation. “This guy gets shot in the middle of the street, his best friend standing beside him, people all around and nobody will tell us anything. They claim they didn’t see anything,” Smoot said.

Juvenile probation officer Emily Jackson spoke to the crowd of about 30 about gangs, but acknowledged there isn’t a readily identifiable gang problem in Farrell or Sharon. In larger cities like Detroit and even Youngstown it’s more of an issue, she said.

Kochems said gangs affect Farrell and Sharon in that actual gang members from those areas come to the Shenango Valley, pay someone “a couple hundred bucks” to stay at their apartment and sell drugs in the community. “Then they are gone after a week, take their two or three grand back home and the next person comes down to repeat the process.”

“They never stay at the same place and it’s never the same person,” he said.

Several audience members blamed landlords who don’t monitor tenants and guests with creating the problem.

Smoot said that is where talking with the police is critical. “We know all the houses, believe me, we do. We know who is sitting on what stoop selling what. But I can’t just come into the house and tell them they can’t have guests. You have to report what you see going on,” he said.

Smoot told the crime watch group to encourage people to call the police anytime they see anything suspicious. “Call us. Force the police to come,” he said.

That is where the community has to do the work, Kochems said, because unless people are willing to tell police and prosecutors who and what they have seen, little can be done to prevent it.

“Who are you going to trust? The community who doesn’t tell cannot stop crime,” he said.

He added that at one time, cocaine was “king” in some areas of the Shenango Valley, but that is no longer true. “That’s why meth is creeping in now,” he said. He also predicted a rise in heroin use and overdoses. “It kills people. It has no other redeeming value and it’s coming in here now,” he said.

Jennifer Clepper, a drug counselor from Behavorial Health Commission, also gave a presentation on drug abuse. The most common forms of drug abuse among juveniles locally she said, are marijuana and prescription pills.

“It is very normal and accepted in some areas of the Shenango Valley to use marijuana. In fact, it’s almost more acceptable than using tobacco,” Clepper said. “And a lot of kids are stealing prescription pills from their parents and grandparents and either using them or selling them.”