THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604270003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Patrick Lackey
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
After a thief broke into a cell-phone company in New Orleans and made off with some equipment, the staff met to discuss whether to call the police.
They decided not to because, as one of them put it, ``Hey, we've got a couple hundred thousand dollars' worth of equipment here. Those cops make about $16,000 a year. No way.''
New Orleans has a serious crime problem - among its police. That story was told in the March 31 New York Times Magazine.
Four New Orleans Police Department officers were charged with murder in one year, one is a suspect in the serial killings of 24 people, and since 1993 more than 50 of the cops have been arrested for felonies, including bank robbery and rape. Federal officials estimate that 10 percent to 15 percent of New Orleans cops are corrupt, though some cops say privately the true number is twice that.
Reading about a city whose residents are reluctant to report a crime to police boggles the mind of a Hampton Roads resident.
In these parts, police almost never commit felonies - hardly any more than ministers. Police and residents are on the same side, though of course it never feels that way as you're issued a speeding ticket.
Two differences between Hampton Roads cities and New Orleans explain why so many of their cops, and so few of ours, are corrupt.
New Orleans has a century-long history of corruption. Its citizens are accustomed to, and thus tolerant of, almost anything. Corruption is, in fact, virtually a form of entertainment. People say the one sin that can cost a Louisiana politician an election is being boring.
In New Orleans, fighting crime doesn't pay. The starting salary is $17,000 and hardly soars from there, though the Big Easy is not a cheap city to live in. The New Orleans population of 479,000 is roughly the same as Cleveland's, but its annual budget of $408 million is less than half that of Cleveland.
Needless to say, New Orleans police have second jobs in order to survive. Many earn more as private security guards than as cops, so they treat their police work as a second job.
And now the moral of this tale:
Don't tolerate corruption.
Pay police a living wage.
Beginning salaries in South Hampton Roads are higher than in New Orleans. They range from $21,300 to $24,500. A recent survey of average salaries showed Suffolk, $23,298; Portsmouth, $23,671; Chesapeake, $28,595; Virginia Beach, $31,553; and Norfolk, $32,611.
Those are not salaries that make sending a child off to college easy. Still, there may be 15 or more applicants for every police opening, simply because many people want to be police officers.
Virginian-Pilot police reporter Mike Mather knows more than 100 South Hampton Roads police, probably twice that number. He said, ``Of all the police officers I know, from everyday working patrolmen to homicide detectives, almost everyone works a part-time job.''
Police take a second job, he said, not to live the high life but to make ends meet.
We have that in common with New Orleans.
Mather calculated that the average cost of police protection per citizen is $122 in Virginia Beach, $163 in Norfolk, $108 in Chesapeake, $117 in Portsmouth and $98 in Suffolk.
Those are not back-breaking numbers. Virginia is fighting crime by building prisons. More money should go up front: preventing crime, arresting criminals, paying police. MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB