THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9406170605
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940617 LENGTH: NORFOLK
High urged about 160 representatives of religious organizations and civic groups to forge partnerships with police and reinvigorate their neighborhoods.
{REST} ``We are stretched to the limit. Our officers are sweating at the end of their tours of duty. They are putting everything into it,'' High said at a luncheon Thursday at Scope. ``But the issue for us and the issue for you is that we can do a little more.''
Religious and community leaders need to provide summertime work opportunities, organize recreational activities, emphasize the importance of strong families and hold planning sessions with lieutenants heading the sector patrol teams, High said.
``We need to sit together as partners and individually in our communities and plan. We've got to put the effort in the place of the talk,'' he said.
No concrete plans were outlined at the luncheon, and at least one participant was skeptical. ``I want to see how far this `Partnership Power in Norfolk' goes,'' said Wilma Suiter, referring to the slogan of the city's community policing program.
``I've heard all this before. I'm just here to listen to the same old rhetoric,'' said Suiter, president of the Oakwood Civic League. ``But I'm here because the chief has to be given an opportunity. He's only been here a year.''
Clarence Holmes, Jr., a representative of the Titustown Civic League, said he appreciated High's call for cooperation. ``Personally, I don't think any program the Police Department has will work without citizens,'' Holmes said. ``They need our help, and we definitely need their help.''
Religious groups welcomed police efforts to include them.
``This is a big change. It shows on High's part that he understands kids need religion as well as education and learning,'' said Mitchell Hill, of the Truth of God Ministry on Sewells Point Road. ``We want to get the community like it was when we were growing up.''
As the chief addressed the audience, his eyes welled with tears.
``This is an emotional issue for me,'' High said, stopping to dab his eyes with his blue napkin. ``I go out and see all of the young men who are being slaughtered and the young women who are prostituting themselves. As chief I can't sit idly by, but I can't do it alone.''
High was selected during a four-month search that included 64 applicants. Before coming to South Hampton Roads last June, he was second-in-command of Washington's police force.
{KEYWORDS} NORFOLK POLICE DEPARTMENT CRIME
by CNB