Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993 TAG: 9302070021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
REDUCING CRIME MORE THAN `LOCKING MORE PEOPLE UP'
NEARLY TWO YEARS after Roanoke's Community Relations Task Force made its recommendations, what steps has the city taken to reduce violent crime?For residents in the Lansdowne Park public-housing community, it will be welcome news.
Roanoke plans to add a second unit of the Community Oriented Police Effort by summer to deal with the growing problem of violence.
Nearly $330,000 was included in the city's budget for another COPE unit, similar to the one credited by both police and residents for reducing crime in the Lincoln Terrace and Hurt Park neighborhoods.
The new 11-member unit will enable police to spend more time in Lansdowne Park, where a man was shot this past week and where gunshots often are heard at night.
The city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority also plans to begin making background checks of applicants for Lansdowne Park and other public housing to weed out troublemakers. A panel of residents will help screen the applicants and decide who can move into the public-housing complexes.
Neva Smith, the authority's executive director, said the checks will include criminal records of applicants, as well their history in paying rent.
That procedure won't prevent outsiders from coming into the housing complexes to commit crimes. But the changes might make a difference, and they cannot come soon enough for Lansdowne residents, who have questioned whether the city is doing enough to curb violence.
There have been two drug-related shooting deaths in Lansdowne in the past two years. The latest shooting has caused city officials to re-evaluate their efforts to curb crime in several neighborhoods. Inaddition to the Lansdowne shooting, a man was shot last week in the gymnasium in Eureka Park, a little over a mile from Lansdowne.
"We are trying to be pro-active and anticipate problems, but it's hard sometimes to predict where there will be problems," said George Snead, director of public safety.
Snead wishes the second COPE unit could start sooner, but the city can't establish the new unit until a group of police recruits finishes the Police Academy and frees up veteran officers for the job, Snead said.
Despite the recent shootings, Snead said city officials are trying to deal with the problem. "It can't be done overnight, but we are working on it."
Not all of the city's efforts have been focused directly on violence, but they are related to the issue, Snead said.
In the past two years, the city has:
Stepped up recruitment of black officers for a mostly white police force. The city now has 15 black officers on the 244-member force, up from eight two years ago.
Created the COPE unit, which works closely with residents in high-crime neighborhoods to help build trust and a feeling of security.
Assigned police resource officers to schools, including Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools, to teach youths the dangers of drug abuse and to provide role models. The resource officers make friends with the children and help them develop positive attitudes toward police.
Developed athletic and recreational activities for young people in city parks during the summer to keep them off the streets, particularly at night.
Established an anti-drug program to reduce drug-trafficking in public-housing communities. Paid for by a $300,000 federal grant, the program provides counseling, educational materials, workshops and similar activities to help keep young people from using drugs - and to get those on drugs to quit.
Several of the actions were recommended by the city's Community Relations Task Force, a 21-member panel that was created in 1990 to review police-citizen relations after a series of racial incidents involving police.
Most of those incidents involved crowds throwing bottles and other objects at passing motorists. In another incident, a black high-school counselor accused white officers of roughing him up after he tried to go to the aid of two girls who were being picked up on suspicion of trespassing.
Burt Levine, co-chairman of the panel, said the group will release a second report soon that will assess the city's response to the two-dozen recommendations in its 1991 report.
"Quite a number of them have been implemented," Levine said. But he would not go into detail until the task force has reviewed the report.
Many of the panel's recommendations dealt with police procedures, operations, recruitment and training that have been adopted but are not directly related to the crime issue.
Councilman Delvis "Mac" McCadden said the city can do more to curb violence.
"Doggone right, it can be reduced" if taxpayers are willing to pay for more COPE units, he said. He will raise the issue with City Council.
During council's budget study this spring, Snead said, city officials will propose additional measures to defuse violence. But he would not discuss them or say whether council will be asked to hire more police officers.
Councilman William White said more police might help. But the city first needs someone on the city manager's staff who is "street smart" and understands what is happening in neighborhoods, he said.
"I believe we are weak in that area. We don't have anyone who is sensitive to these issues," White said. "We have a lot of bureaucrats, but we need someone who has street savvy."
If the city had a more racially diverse staff, he said, officials could better understand the problems and could more likely develop a successful strategy for dealing with them. "You can't just keep locking more people up and building more jails," White said. "We have seen that doesn't work."
White said he was not criticizing James Ritchie, who was named assistant city manager this past week to succeed Earl Reynolds, who was the city's highest-ranking black administrator.
White also said he wants the city to help ensure that its economic development and jobs programs benefit people in poor neighborhoods as well as those in more affluent areas.
"Until you provide hope and jobs for people, the problem won't be solved," he said.
Councilman James Harvey said more police officers alone won't solve the problem.
"The root of the problem lies in the home. If parents allow their children to have guns, there is not much the city can do about it," Harvey said. "It scares me that kids take guns to schools."
Under the state's Dillon Rule, local governments do not have the authority to enact gun-control laws. Only the General Assembly has the right to regulate guns.
Harvey said he thinks the current debate in the legislature on gun controls is healthy. "That is not the total answer, but it will help."
Mayor David Bowers said he, too, is waiting to see what the General Assembly does on the gun issue. "I'm anxious to see how they respond."
Bowers noted that the city has added 20 police officers in recent years.
Rob Glenn, chairman of the city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said he is pleased that the residents in Lansdowne Park are becoming involved and want to help rid their neighborhood of guns and crime.
The authority has been trying to organize strong residents' councils in all of the city's public-housing communities.
Residents of Raleigh Court - an affluent, mostly white neighborhood - recently banded together to help solve a burglary problem and urge the courts to give a harsh penalty to the burglar. If they can do it, Glenn said, Lansdowne Park residents can join together to keep their neighborhood safe.
Housing authority director Smith, who came to Roanoke from Hampton last fall, also hopes to get the residents involved in the monitoring of crime and related activities in the public-housing communities.