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

DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991                   TAG: 9102250289
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN ROANOKE

PROOF of Roanoke city's efforts to recruit more black police lies in a pudding that won't be known for months, even years. In 1995, say, will Roanokers be able to look at their police force and see a significant presence of black officers?

Already, though, the prospects are looking up. Amid the testiness aroused by the issue are several positive signs.

One is that municipal officials, from City Manager Robert Herbert on down, don't dispute the existence of a problem. If defensiveness too often has been officialdom's reaction, at least defensiveness implies recognition that there's something to be defensive about. That's better than merely dismissing criticism as of no consequence.

Moreover, municipal officials appear genuinely to want to do something about the situation. The Community Relations Task Force named by Herbert to look into the issue (among others) has turned out to be a collection of diverse personalities unafraid to speak their minds. Police Chief David Hooper, a competent officer of the law, seems to be listening.

Plans to intensify recruiting efforts have been given strong backing by City Council. The experience of other Virginia cities - Lynchburg is one - suggests that this can pay off. With Herbert seeking action, the tendency to find excuses has given way to a search for solutions. (Simply the fact that the city has turned its attention to the matter, and in very public fashion, is said to have increased interest in joining the police from among prospective black applicants.)

Finally, other questions about the role of the police in the life of the city, questions apart from race, also are beginning to draw attention.

Getting a significant black presence on a police force in a city with a significant black minority is important, and in a way not true of other municipal services. The police constantly find themselves in tense, confrontational situations. However much you might wish it weren't so, race can heighten the tension - if not among the police, then among the people the police must often confront in performing their duties.

Task-force members also have told Hooper, though, of a perception by at least some Roanokers that some Roanoke police have a belligerent, "Rambo" mentality. That is unhealthy regardless of color.

If it's a perception and nothing more, it's an "image" problem that better public relations might solve. The guess here, however, is that the situation is more complicated than that.

There's probably a handful of officers casting an entire department in a bad light. If so, the worst thing the police - or any other organization with a similar problem - could do would be to close ranks around erring brethren. Nobody can afford less than the police themselves to have such people around.

But a danger more troublesome, because more general and harder to remedy, lies in the tendency of police work to foster in its practitioners a sense of apartness from the public whom they are sworn to serve. The hours are weird; the stress is constant; you see a side of life that could sour anyone on human nature.

Recruiting more black police in Roanoke is one aspect of a larger issue: how to ensure that the police are part of, and not apart from, their communities. We hope the challenge has been recognized and engaged.

by CNB