Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 28, 1993 TAG: 9310280364
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER Staffi writer
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
``In fact, our crime has declined in our town,'' she said. ``It's come down quite a bit.''
The most recent statistics are still being compiled, but Pulaski won the Governor's Cup for crime prevention because of the decrease last year.
The town also won first-place awards among communities of its size for the last two years for its push to get drivers to buckle up, and last year for its program to curb auto theft.
All of these are programs that Hill helps to oversee as the Police Department's crime prevention coordinator.
She also lines up people to appear as McGruff, the ``Take a bite outta crime'' dog, for public, anti-crime activities.
Hill joined the department in August 1990, as a crime analysis clerk, which involved entering crime statistics such as daily offenses, monthly listings and cases solved into a computer.
``It got a little boring,'' she confessed. ``So I started going to meetings with Barry.''
Barry is Lt. Barry Buckner, the department's crime prevention officer, and\ the meetings ranged from Neighborhood Watch organizations to student programs. She told Buckner she would like to do more work in the area of crime prevention.
For the past year and a half, she has held the job of crime prevention\ coordinator under a department of criminal justice grant written by Buckner.
The grant runs out in July. Hill is hoping the town will pick up the costs of her position.
She coordinates such programs as the Chief's Challenge, to increase vehicle seat-belt use; Operation Heat Wave, another national program aimed at decreasing car theft and offering rewards of up to $10,000 for information on stolen vehicles; and the McGruff program.
McGruff not only talks to children and appears in parades, his picture marks the 19 ``McGruff Homes'' in Pulaski. These are safe places where children can go if they find themselves in trouble of any kind.
Hill recruits participants for this program at such places as elementary school PTA meetings. ``But they have to go through a process,'' she said, including background checks and interviews with participants and their neighbors. ``We make sure the home is completely safe,'' she said.
People who agree to have their homes designated as safe houses are not supposed to take any actions themselves when a child reports a problem, but notify the police or rescue squad to get help for the child.
Hill is also starting a crime prevention program in Pulaski Middle School. Nine students, three from each grade level, will be chosen to take part in such activities as Operation Heat Wave.
Those students will meet weekly, and there will also be monthly meetings open to all interested students on such topics as crime prevention or date and acquaintance rape. ``We've got really good responses from a lot of students,'' said Hill, who thought up that program. Other programs were in place when she started as coordinator.
``I see a lot of juveniles that are in trouble,'' she said.
She realized the effectiveness of the seat-belt program taught in drivers' education , she said. More young people seem aware of the need to buckle up than older drivers, generally, so the program has been effective at the student level.
``And I thought, well, that's just like crime prevention, too,'' she said.
The town's Neighborhood Crime Watch programs continue to grow. ``We currently have 27,'' Hill said. Three more are scheduled to start soon.
Hill had worked at Lee Jeans and, when she found herself laid off, decided to continue her education. She enrolled at New River Community College and earned an associate degree in accounting.
She worked as a part-time payroll clerk for a few months when she saw a job opening at the Police Department. It seemed interesting to her, even though she admits ``it's nothing really that I went to school for.''
Hill can put her accounting training to work in grant writing, though. She still does the crime statistics work for which she was originally hired, with all the other jobs having been added.
She is used to the regular duties although, when the time comes to work on a new program, ``then it starts getting a little pushy,'' she said. ``If I don't have a lot to do, I sort of get bored.''
She and her husband, William E. ``Eddie'' Hill, live in the Mount View community near Dublin with their three sons.
by CNB