THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507230089
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Beginning next weekend, more than 5,000 Fraternal Order of Police members and their families will meet in the resort city for the organization's national conference.
Local organizers say this convention will be the second-largest ever hosted by the city. Only the Shriners bring in more people.
But even second-best will be a boon.
In 1993 in Louisville, Ky., 6,000 FOP attendees dumped nearly $5 million into the city's economy during the week-long stay, according to Jennifer Foley, a communications specialist with the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
``The convention business is highly competitive,'' said Dave Hewes, president of the city's FOP lodge. ``We were very lucky to get this thing.''
Here, members of more than 2,000 FOP lodges representing 37 states, Canada and Ireland have booked more than 2,500 hotel rooms - or 14,000 room nights, to use the convention planners' yardstick.
The FOP delegates will spend a week at the Pavilion setting the group's legislative agenda, Hewes said.
That's important because the FOP's support is frequently sought by politicians taking tough-on-crime stances.
And the FOP, like other national lobbying groups, only backs politicians whose platforms reflect the organization's views on law-enforcement issues.
Those views will be refined here during the national conference.
Gun control, the Crime Bill and labor-relations are expected to be hot topics, organizers said.
And like politicians, FOP delegates don't always agree on the positions the national organization should take.
The debates can become quite heated, said Al Byrum, an FOP staffer helping to organize the conference.
For example, the FOP supported what is now the Brady Law, and backs limits or bans of assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition.
But the stricter gun-control measures favored by urban departments aren't generally supported by rural departments.
The FOP was founded in Pittsburgh in 1915. City officers concerned about working conditions met secretly in the basement of a bank.
Since then, the FOP has grown into the largest law-enforcement organization in the nation.
The FOP's function is ``to improve the lot of the average, everyday police officer,'' Hewes said. The national FOP conference is held every two years.
It took more than five years of planning and at least three years of intense lobbying to draw the conference to the resort city, Hewes said.
In 1992, the city's mayor and convention planners endorsed the effort. Working with Hewes and other local lodge members, city officials put together packages to entice the FOP to hold the 1995 convention here.
Their main competition was Fort Lauderdale.
The Florida resort city was also pulling out the stops to attract the lucrative convention.
At the 1993 Louisville conference, Virginia Beach delegates expected a showdown with their rivals from Fort Lauderdale to win the bid.
But just before that conference began, a labor dispute between Fort Lauderdale and it's police ended the city's chances to play host. Fort Lauderdale's FOP lodge, unhappy with the city's position on police salaries, pulled out of the running, Hewes said.
Virginia Beach was unopposed.
Police here are in a similar dispute with City Council, but Hewes said he and the local lodge decided against using the national convention as a bargaining chip.
``We are proud of our police department, our city and our lodge,'' Hewes said. ``We wanted to do something to stimulate the city's economy.''
Hewes and the leaders of two other police organizations representing 90 percent of the city's officers have publicly expressed concern for what they say are City Council's poor priorities.
They have accused the city of allowing police salaries to fall well behind those paid by cities of similar size throughout the country.
Most of the delegates are expected to arrive Saturday and next Sunday.
Gov. George Allen will be a featured speaker July 30, when the business meeting begins. President Clinton has also been invited, but Hewes said he hasn't heard if Clinton will attend. by CNB