Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The heart of the program announced Monday night by City Council is the assignment of more police officers to the streets through overtime pay.
The program also sets aside money for a witness-protection program and for a mobile watch program that would train 375 nonpolice city employees, equipped with portable radios, to report suspicious activity to police.
City police also will be helped by 13 state troopers whose temporary assignments to the city were extended by Gov. George Allen. The troopers had been scheduled to leave at the end of September but will stay through December.
Allen told council members he would make an additional 60 state troopers available. The state also will provide electronic surveillance equipment, dog teams to search for drugs, and aircraft to help in undercover operations.
``This assistance will be made available immediately,'' he said. He referred to drug raids that were timed to start at 7 p.m., just as City Council went on live television with its anti-crime package.
``Even as I speak,'' Allen said, ``state police and Richmond police are conducting the first of a number of special operations to rid our neighborhoods of drug dealers.''
U.S. Sen. Charles Robb told council that Richmond could receive a grant under the recently passsed federal crime bill.
He said he ``made sure that the U.S. attorney general is aware of the urgency of moving money into localities.''
Robb said the chances are one in nine that a city applying for federal money will get it. ``I am optimistic Richmond will be one of the first cities'' to get a share of the money, he said.
With a record 124 slayings this year, Richmond's per-capita murder rate now ranks second in the nation, behind New Orleans.
by CNB