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

DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990                   TAG: 9005290212
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

POLICE PRIORITIES SHOULD BE CHANGED

DON'T the police have better things to do than to sit five houses down at 8 a.m., in a suburban neighborhood, issuing traffic tickets left and right when most people's car haven't even had time to warm up? And to issue parking tickets at the Roanoke Regional Airport for five-minute parking, especially when a heart-attack victim is being loaded on his way to a local hospital?

Where were they when my mailbox was run over, and when my mother-in-law's car was stolen and I had to be the one to find it? Where were they when my car was broken into in broad daylight, and just where are my personal belongings? And the other night, why didn't they catch the driver who flew past me at 80 mph and drove me into the ditch?

Don't they have more to do than give traffic tickets and parking tickets?

Aren't there bigger crimes to be working on, like drugs, missing children, drunken drivers, thefts, etc.?

\ DIANE ANDERSON\ SALEM

by CNB