ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on October 17, 1996.
Dennis DeBuc, an assistant professor at New River Community College
in Dublin since 1988, previously was an officer with the police
department in LaGrange, Ore. A story Wednesday gave the wrong city.
DENNIS DUBUC has worked with juvenile offenders personally. He and other Virginians wonder what candidates propose to do to stop kids from turning to crime.
As a police officer for 11 1/2 years in Oregon, Dennis DuBuc had to deal with kids who were juvenile delinquents. Now he deals with young people who want to become law enforcement professionals.
DuBuc since mid-1988 has been an assistant professor in the Administration of Justice curriculum at New River Community College. Having been able "to step away from the heat of battle," he finds education and prevention to be better tools for handling juvenile crime than locking up juveniles and throwing away the key.
``I think getting tough on kids in general probably isn't the best thing we can do,'' he said. ``It's going to take citizen involvement. It's going to take people who are willing to stand up and say, `This is my community. I want it to be safe for me and my kids.'''
Virginia does not have the juvenile gangs he saw as a line officer in Yakima, Wash., an area almost consumed by gangs. He sought ways to salvage kids while serving on a local juvenile services board with a judge, a prosecutor, social services and mental health professionals and others. He was a Big Brother.
"I've been out there. I've seen what it's like on the street," DuBuc said. And juvenile crime has changed since then.
"I think the major shift that I've seen is probably toward more violence, and I would say more willingness to use aggression to solve problems. I don't think kids have changed, because I deal with young people every day. But I think the problem is that we've had a desensitization of what's violent," he said.
The problem of crime also is partly one of perception: Nationally, violent crime by juveniles last year was down 2.9 percent and in Virginia, the number of juveniles charged with murder has declined steadily for the past three years. Nevertheless, polls show voters think crime is on the increase and are particularly concerned about what they see as too many young criminals.)
Prevention efforts will never reach the 6 percent or 7 percent of juvenile offenders who are responsible for 70 percent to 85 percent of violent juvenile crime, DuBuc said. Those are the people who need to be locked up, he said. "But what are we going to do about the other 94 percent?"
DuBuc's answer is "an acceptance that it's a community problem and the police are only one of the resources that need to be brought to bear on this problem we call crime." It means getting rid of abandoned buildings that can serve as crack houses or shooting galleries, providing clean recreation areas, making sure all the street lights work.
Even before his college work, DuBuc was a believer in education and training for police. "If you train a person to do one thing, he can do that one thing," DuBuc said. "But if you teach a person how to think, they can learn to do many things. I really think that's an important part of becoming a good law enforcement officer as well as a good citizen."
He found at least one organization helpful: the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, which funded local police training and communications equipment until it was abolished in the early 1980s. In fact, it helped him get his college degree. But it also involved a lot of red tape, he said.
As the No.2 man in the department by the time he left, he said, "it was my unfortunate lot to have to deal with those federal regulations." If such assistance came instead as direct assistance to localities to solve problems they have found and defined, he said, "then I'd say that was a pretty good deal."
He and his wife live in Fairlawn, and he is a confirmed Virginian. "There's a lot to be said for walking down the street and saying hello to somebody and having them say hello back," he said.
Here's what the three congressional candidates in the 9th District say about juvenile crime, and their reactions to DuBuc's observations on how to deal with it:
*Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, agrees that more money invested in education is the best way to prevent future criminals. He supports a tax credit for tuition at community colleges and a tax deduction of up to $10,000 per year to attend a four-year college.
He also favors some provision by which federal funds are returned to states for law enforcement needs, he said.
*Republican candidate Patrick Muldoon thinks the drug culture and the disintegration of the traditional family structure contribute to juvenile crime. Even in two-parent families, he said, both parents often must work, and kids have no adult supervision after school. He wants taxes reduced so both need not work and a parent could be available after school.
Muldoon, who has a brother in police work, said he has heard enough to agree with DuBuc about intrusive red tape. Localities can better decide how such funding could be used, he said.
*Virginia Independent Party candidate Tom Roberts wants to return to the kind of family discipline that seemed to work for previous generations and that tells kids they are indeed responsible for their own actions.
As hard-hearted as it sounds to be against returning federal money to help local police do their work, Roberts said, it is an inefficient use of funds. "I think it's foolish for us on the local level to try and send down $10 [to Washington] and beg for $1 back in local law enforcement," he said. "If we're spending money now greater than we have, I think it is a crime. We are stealing from the future generations."
"Well, I think all of the candidates have hit the nail right on the head" as far as preventing juvenile crime goes, DuBuc said. "Seeing as how they agree with me, I would say let's go ahead and do it."
He likes Boucher's emphasis on education and particularly agrees with Muldoon about the lack of family support leading to juvenile problems.
"Mom and Dad not there all the time, I think, is just as big a factor if not bigger than drugs or school." What is needed is "the values that parents instill in their kids, the values of staying straight or staying in school."
He still likes the idea of federal programs to help police with education and training, but they do take manpower and money to administer and he does not fault Roberts' argument about the fiscal inefficiencies that could occur.
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER/Staff. Virginia may not have the juvenileby CNBgangs Dennis DuBuc saw as a line officer on the streets of Yakima,
Wash., but it does have a problem. Of a possible solution, he
says,``It's going to take citizen involvement. It's going to take
people who are willing to stand up and say, `This is my community. I
want it to be safe for me and my kids.''' color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESS