THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010484
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Police Chief Melvin C. High got a boost Tuesday night when about 50 members of civic leagues turned out to tell the City Council that he was doing a great job.
If anyone should be reprimanded, the civic league representatives said, it was not High but the rank and file police officers who had turned out last week at a City Council meeting to trumpet a survey that claimed low morale and lack of support for the police chief and some of his programs.
``Chief High, since he came here, has been a personal friend of every neighborhood in this city,'' said Joshua C. Paige, president of the Poplar Hall Civic League. ``I am worried that the police officers can come down here and intimidate our city leaders. It bothers me that most of these people don't even live in this city.''
About three of every four city police officers live outside Norfolk, city studies show.
The residents said they not only like High, they liked the community policing program he has championed called PACE - Police Assisted Community Enforcement. These residents said they interpreted the average police officer's lack of faith in High as lack of concern in the everyday crime problems of neighborhoods that he emphasizes.
The residents' support of High stood out more starkly Tuesday because representatives of a new organization of police, firefighters and paramedics, called the Public Safety Alliance, also attended the council meeting. Like the police officers who attended the week before, these public safety officials were unhappy with city budget cuts and had other complaints about working conditions.
Despite their complaints, the new association's leader said its aim was to start a reasonable conversation with city leaders, not to make demands or carry out protests. Leading the new group before council was a former police chief for the city, Charles Grant.
``Working together, we can make Norfolk a safe place and a better place'' for businesses, residents and tourists, said Grant, who retired in 1985 after nine years as chief and 39 years on the force.
Grant's son, Don Grant, is a firefighter. Don Grant attended Tuesday's meeting and is a leader in the new group.
After the meeting, a group of firefighters said it wasn't pay that concerned them as much as the reduction in personnel that, they said, has made their job more difficult and dangerous.
The founding members of the new alliance are three chapters of public safety associations. They are the Fire Fighters Union, Local 68; the Fraternal Order of Police, Commodore Lodge Three; and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Norfolk Police Union Local 412. by CNB