ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050039
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
MUCH LIKE "please" and "thank-you," the magic words most of us learn as children, "I'll look into it" can work wonders for politicians. Roanoke Mayor David Bowers would do well to learn the phrase.
Talking Tuesday night with residents of the Hurt Park Housing Development, the mayor heard complaints from the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference about alleged police abuses by the city's Community Oriented Policing Effort. "We're just going to have to pull that COPE unit, maybe," Bowers said.
Wrong response.
The allegations shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Indeed, building trust between the police and residents is a key part of COPE's purpose. If trust is lacking, the reasons for this need to be explored and dealt with.
Even so, COPE has had too much success elsewhere in the city for the mayor to suggest, without further investigation, that the unit might have to be pulled from the neighborhood.
Other complaints Tuesday night focused on the physical condition of the public-housing development. In saying he'd talk to the city housing authority about putting up downspouts and mowing lawns, Bowers was on reasonably firm ground. But if Bowers' promise that "[w]e're going to clean up Hurt Park" left the impression that as mayor he can do much more than make suggestions to the authority, the impression is mistaken.
On that point, a similar phrase - "I'll see what I can do about it" - would have been similarly useful.
What counts, in any case, is not what he says, but what he does. Bowers' 1992 wooing of voter groups with undeliverable promises caused political problems for him that, had the tide been less Democratic and his challenger more formidable, could have threatened the mayor's re-election this year.
Graver than the effect of overpromising on one man's fortunes, though, is its impact on people's trust in government generally. Building such trust isn't the job only of COPE units; politicians should do their part, too.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB