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RALEIGH - Roy Cooper and Bob Crumley both want your vote to be attorney general, but the two tell very different stories about crime and punishment in North Carolina.

Cooper, a Democrat who has held the office for the past eight years, says violent crime and murder rates are lower than they were 10 years ago.

The state, he acknowledges, has growing problems with gangs, but improvements in the crime labs and new laws will help state and local law enforcement get a handle on the problem.

Crumley, a Republican known best as a trial lawyer and the head of a firm with 13 offices across the state, says the Department of Justice has been mismanaged, that the state's crime lab is woefully behind and essentially accuses Cooper of fiddling while North Carolina burns.

"Over the past eight years, there have been increases in murder, violent crimes, and now, gang violence," Crumley says on a campaign Web site. In a recent interview, he points to an increase in the murder rate between 2006 and 2007.

"It doesn't matter what it was 10 years ago," Crumley said. "It matters what happens on his watch."

Cooper bristles at the notion he has fallen down on the job.

"He's flat-out wrong; he's just flat-out wrong," Cooper said. "There's a lot to do, and we're going to keep working to give law enforcement more tools to fight crime ... but we've made significant progress."

In reality, crime statistics may not help either candidate press their case.

"Over the past five years, it (the crime rate) has been fairly flat," said James Brunet , a professor in the N.C. State Department of Public Administration who studies criminal-justice issues.

Violent crime, he said, hit its apex in the early to mid-1990s.

Crime statistics from the unified crime report, a nationwide compilation of figures, bear out that notion. And the good economy, as much as good police work, can get credit for keeping the crime rate relatively low.

So what of the crime lab?

When Cooper took office, rape kits were not examined for DNA evidence unless there was a suspect. And local law enforcement agencies experienced long wait times for even basic services.

Today, Cooper said, the backlog of rape kits has been cleared, and a new Triad crime lab based in Greensboro has helped speed turnaround time for law enforcement agencies in and around the city.

"We are now taking a DNA sample from every felon and putting it in a database," Cooper said. "We caught more criminals using that DNA database during the first six months of 2007 than we did the first 10 years of the program. We're also exonerating innocent people."

Crumley, again, tells a very different story, saying the state's crime labs are "a disaster" and questioning why the new Greensboro crime lab doesn't have the ability to test DNA evidence. And, he said, Cooper called on local law enforcement agencies to pay $250,000 toward equipping the lab.

"He didn't have enough money in his budget to finish what he started. ... I've had a sheriff tell me it felt like extortion," Crumley said.

Cooper says putting DNA capabilities in the Triad lab would have delayed its opening.

Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes , a Republican, says he'll be voting for Crumley, but he has nothing bad to say about Cooper.

Of the crime lab situation, Barnes said, "It's been a problem in the past, but it's not been as big of a problem as it was."

The new Triad lab, he said, has been helpful.

"I was anxious to make it happen," Barnes said, adding that he helped round up local law enforcement chiefs to raise the $250,000 needed to equip the lab. "We used federal forfeiture money, and it was a one-time thing. I was happy to do it. I was that anxious to get it done."

Cooper and Crumley do agree on a few points. Both say the State Bureau of Investigation should have access to investigative grand juries as a way to fight public corruption, for example. And both agree that gangs are a growing problem that needs statewide attention.

Crumley, however, says Cooper should have seen the gang problem coming.

"Every state you look at where there has been an increase in illegal immigrants, you see an increase in gangs," Crumley said. Cooper, he said, should have spotted the demographic trends and been better prepared to fight back.

Cooper said the state has worked to track gangs and that he helped seek legislation to fight them. And new technology will help crime lab analysts sort through ballistic evidence frequently left behind in gang crimes.

"I've been talking for a number of years about intervention and prevention," Cooper said. "It's an issue we're taking head on and are beginning to have some success."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com