
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994                   TAG: 9408150028
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RICHMOND UNDER THE GUN

NO ONE seemed to take it seriously when Richmond's School Board chairman, Melvin Law, proposed that martial law be declared as an emergency response to tidal waves of violent crime striking his city.

Surely it will never come to that. In Beirut, maybe, but not in Richmond, the gently colonnaded capital of Virginia.

Yet, indeed, Richmond appears to be under siege. There have been more than 100 murders thus far this year - a record number - and many have involved teen-agers. The sound of gunfire has become as common in some neighborhoods as soft Southern accents are in others. Residents are afraid to go outside their homes at night; many wouldn't dare venture downtown after dark.

Law's solution, to "bring in the National Guard, federal troops, whatever we need to get our community back," may be extreme, but Richmond desperately needs workable responses.

At a crisis "summit" on crime sponsored last week by city leaders, many proposals besides Law's were put on the table for Richmond City Council's consideration next month.

Meanwhile, City Manager Robert Bobb said police will be on "full alert" in several troubled neighborhoods. Police patrols will be doubled in some cases; arrests are expected to increase. "We're going to put zero-tolerance on everybody that's movin' and shakin', '' Bobb said.

Fine, but Richmond officials should also consider going the extra mile - about 170 extra miles, actually. They might find value in a visit to Roanoke for an up-close look at its COPE program.

The Community Oriented Policing Effort is one factor helping to keep a lid on crime in this city precisely because it does not depend on more patrol cars driving through crime-prone neighborhoods. Instead, specially trained police are working the neighborhoods, interacting with residents and working side by side with them to prevent crime.

Granted, Richmond is larger than Roanoke, with bigger-scale crime problems. But other larger cities, Norfolk included, have promoted community-policing methods with good results.

Richmond could do worse than to focus on prevention efforts. Waiting until the anarchy gets so bad that martial law is needed would be considerably worse.

by CNB