DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240383

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  102 lines

CHESAPEAKE POLICE TO BRANCH OUT THE CITY'S NEW POLICE CHIEF AIMS TO DECENTRALIZE AND EXPAND THE FORCE BY 2007.

Within a decade, most city residents will be closer to the police who serve them and will know them better.

When there's trouble, officers will be able to respond more quickly. When it's calm, the police will be around to keep trouble from starting.

That's what officials hope to achieve by creating a constellation of police precincts, surrounded by satellite offices in shopping centers and housing developments throughout the city.

New police Chief Richard A. Justice wants to decentralize the department to better serve the sprawling city of 353 square miles. And he hopes to focus the department's resources not just on crime, but on the urban blight that fosters crime in run-down neighborhoods.

Justice plans to create five full-service precincts, located in the corners of the city, by 2007. Chesapeake's police headquarters in Great Bridge will be called a first precinct. Each precinct will eventually generate its own smaller field offices throughout the surrounding neighborhoods.

Such neighborhood outposts will increase police presence and help officers stay in touch with residents, Justice said.

Stations located throughout the city would also allow police to get to emergencies faster. And field stations allow police to stay in their patrol area while filling out paperwork or returning telephone calls, rather than returning to headquarters.

Chesapeake opened its newest field office earlier this month in the Cavalier Industrial Park in space donated by BFI Waste Systems. The office, in the Deep Creek area, is the first police field station in a commercial area.

For now, only South Norfolk has its own full-service precinct, known as the 2nd Precinct. Police have been focusing their community policing efforts there. Chesapeake also operates four field stations in apartment buildings in South Norfolk.

These are the department's plans for its other precincts:

Within a month, police will close the 4th Precinct, in Western Branch, to renovate it and convert it into the city's newest full-service precinct. The existing facility was built during the 1950s and is not large enough to run a full-service police station, Justice said. Police will open a field station in Chesapeake Square Mall for about a year during renovations, Justice said, and continue to operate the storefront station as a field office after the new precinct opens next year.

Building a 6,000-square-foot addition for the Western Branch precinct will cost the city more than $1.6 million initially, according to the city budget. Operating costs for the refurbished 4th Precinct will cost the city $48,400 over the next four years.

Chesapeake's next precinct is slated to open in Deep Creek in 1999 or 2000, Justice said. The city already owns the land - 240 acres of a larger parcel along Route 17 now owned by the Department of Parks and Recreation. The Deep Creek facility will be known as the city's 3rd Precinct.

Justice hopes to open the 5th Precinct in Greenbrier in 2002. Chesapeake has not yet bought any land in Greenbrier, where land is becoming increasingly more expensive as the area develops as a commercial center.

Police now use the Greenbrier fire station as a reporting station - where they can use the telephone or the rest room. But police will need a larger, full-service facility as Greenbrier's residential and business community expands.

Last, police plan to open the 6th Precinct in Hickory in 2006. The city owns no land in this relatively rural area, however.

Along with creating the new precincts, the Police Department will re-align patrol districts, neighborhood by neighborhood, Justice said.

Chesapeake also is beefing up its force.

The city will hire 20 new police officers in July through federal community policing grants, Justice said. The city has hired 37 additional police officers since 1994, thanks to the $2.5 million in federal funding it has received since then.

In addition to expanding Chesapeake's police precincts, Justice aims to expand the role of the police in preventing crime.

Justice hopes to help rejuvenate South Norfolk through a federal ``Weed and Seed'' grant. Chesapeake is applying today for the $250,000 grant to help eradicate ``urban blight'' in the neighborhood. The city would be required to match 10 percent of any funding it receives.

Justice says he hopes to target the abandoned buildings and boarded-up houses that often ``harbor criminal activity.'' Grafitti, broken windows and run-down building exteriors encourage further vandalism and law-breaking, he said.

The grant will allow the police department to work with the Chesapeake department of inspections to enforce city codes and demolish such blighted buildings.

``Crime is not the only problem facing South Norfolk,'' Justice said. ``This grant would give us an opportunity to attack some of the other issues in South Norfolk.''

Only four of the 19 municipalities in Virginia that have applied for the grant will receive money, Justice said. Chesapeake is competing with Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Norfolk for the money. Chesapeake will learn if it has been awarded the grant within one to two months. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

THE CITY'S PLANS Newest office: Chesapeake opened a field office

this month in the Deep Creek area, in Cavalier Industrial Park.

Upcoming precincts: Within a month, police will begin renovations

on the 4th Precinct in Western Branch.

The city's 3rd Precinct is to open in Deep Creek in 1999 or 2000;

the 5th Precinct in Greenbrier in 2002; and the 6th Precinct in

Hickory in 2006. KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT

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