THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508190048
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The FBI is teaming up with police to help solve several gang- and drug-related shootings that have bolstered Portsmouth's standing as the most violent city in Hampton Roads.
Two Portsmouth police officers have been assigned to work with Norfolk FBI agents, focusing on two cases involving drugs and shootings. The investigation began last week.
By joining forces, law enforcement officials hope it will be easier to investigate and prosecute the crimes, the FBI and Portsmouth Police Department said in a joint statement released Friday.
Some of the federal offenses being probed involve violations of the new drive-by shooting law and laws against the sale of illegal drugs.
The federal resources will add not only investigative manpower to help solve crimes, but also will enable the U.S. attorney and the commonwealth's attorney to prosecute federal and state violations arising from the shootings and drug sales, the police and FBI say.
Officials would not identify the cases under investigation, but there are a number from which to choose.
The city already has surpassed, by one, last year's total of 22 homicides. During one five-day period this month, four people were shot to death - the most ever during a single week in Portsmouth, said police spokesman G.A. Brown.
Police Chief Dennis A. Mook has long maintained that drug trafficking fuels most violent crime in Portsmouth.
Although the FBI's involvement has just begun, city officials hope the joint association will become long-term. With federal funding, the effort could be expanded into a police-FBI task force on violent crime in Portsmouth.
Although last year's homicide total was a decrease over previous years, the city's violent crime rate has remained stubbornly high. Portsmouth led the region in 1994 and 1993. The violent crime rate is an estimate of how commonly crimes against people - murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault - occur within a community. Communities of different populations can be compared to one another because the violent crime rate is based on a population of 100,000.
Helping police departments fight particularly difficult crime problems on a local level is nothing new for the FBI. Interagency cooperation has been applied to the illegal drug trade since the early 1980s.
A task force made up of FBI agents and agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration was set up several years ago to investigate heroin trafficking, especially in Norfolk and Portsmouth. Both agencies participated in other local task forces during the 1980s and 1990s.
KEYWORDS: MURDER CRIME JOINT TASK FORCE by CNB