Nothing makes me happier than when I think the newspaper is making a differerence in the community.

So when I was approached by Nicole Cogdell about the possibility of publishing a “Most Wanted” list for the city of Chester, I told her absolutely, that they could count us in.

Cogdell is president of the community anti-violence group Women of Strength. They know better than most the ravages and scars that street violence leaves on Chester and its citizens every day.

We published the list of the city’s 12 Most Wanted on Wednesday. The faces of the 12 men appeared on the front page. I was wondering if I was going to get phone calls about the Page One presentation.

All of the faces are either black or Hispanic. I didn’t receive one complaint.

This wasn’t something that we compiled. It was put together by the people who deal with the problem every day, the Chester Police Department.

If the faces had been all white we would have run them as well. We have done other similar front page displays in which the majority of the faces was white.

I was struck by a couple of things said by members of the Chester police.

Chief Floyd Lewis probably summed up the situation best, and reminded me of why we were publicizing the list in the first place.

“We just want to get them off the streets,” the chief told reporter Cindy Scharr.

Even more telling was a comment from Maj. Darren Alston, who helped put the list together.

“We need help from the community,” Alston said.

It didn’t take long. The list appeared on the front page Wednesday.

Wednesday night, after getting a tip call, police arrested Vincent Franklin. He faces attempted homicide charges in connection with a shooting in the city.

Chester Police Detective Capt. Joseph Massi made it pretty clear that it was just what the department had hoped for, help from the community, that led to the arrest.

“His apprehension was a result of an individual’s call to 911 after seeing his photograph in the Daily Times,” Massi said.

Someone in the community had stepped up, had come forward with information. It was exactly what the police said they needed to round up the Most Wanted suspects in the city.

I consider this newspaper a part of this community. We are often accused of too often portraying the negative aspects of many of our towns. That would include reporting on crime.

It’s nice to turn that around. Newspapers aren’t supposed to get involved in the story. We’re supposed to be impartial, uninvolved, to simply report.

Of course, almost everything we do involves a judgment call one way or the other.

We made the decision to publish the list of Chester’s 12 Most Wanted.

Make that 11. One of them is now off the street.

And I could not be happier with our role in it.