THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511040288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
There may be as many priorities in fighting crime as there are residents of the Albemarle.
Keep kids from breaking the law. Lock up juvenile offenders. Protect the elderly. Impose tougher sentences for drunken driving. Fight child sexual abuse. Help battered spouses. Bring in more resources for small, isolated law enforcement agencies.
The list goes on through the range of crimes, victims and agencies charged with serving and protecting the populace.
At a criminal justice forum at the K.E. White Graduate Center this week, about 90 people representing those concerns spoke out.
Their ideas won't go unheeded. According to the forum's sponsors, the stories, pleas and suggestions related by law officers, civic activists and concerned citizens will be taken directly to Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.
Thursday's forum was the last in a series conducted by the Governor's Crime Commission, a 40-member body that advises the state's top officials on crime control and public safety issues.
The commission also administers three federal grant programs totaling $13 million annually. In the past eight years, commission officials said, $3 million of that money has found its way to the 1st Judicial District: Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.
Because of that grant-wielding power, many of Thursday's forum participants came both to air their points of view and to hold out their hats.
Elizabeth City Police Chief H.L. Bunch was the first to comment, saying that northeastern North Carolina's rural isolation and its appeal to criminals across the Virginia border make local law enforcement a tough job.
``We are our own resource,'' Bunch said. ``We have to be a very self-reliant geographical area. What we are in dire and desperate need of in northeastern North Carolina are specialized entities in law enforcement.''
Bunch said Elizabeth City police often rely on State Bureau of Investigation officials for much-needed assistance. But the SBI's closest regional office is in Greenville. The area needs a group that can deal with serious crime across city and county jurisdictions, he said.
``We all know that crime does notstop at a city limits sign,'' Bunch said. ``We are swinging by a thread. And it frightens me.''
Other law enforcement officers agreed with Bunch that a regional approach is necessary to control crime better. Pasquotank Sheriff Randy Cartwright and Camden Chief Deputy Tony Perry both said they missed the regional drug task force that the Crime Commission funded for two years but did not renew in mid-1994.
Among the 18 speakers at the Elizabeth City forum were heads of such agencies as Kids First Inc. and Albemarle Hopeline, two groups that depend heavily on Crime Commission grants to provide relief for crime victims in the northeast.
Other agency leaders traveled from as far as New Bern and Hertford County to make their pitches to the commission.
One presentation that got a lot of reaction from Crime Commission Chairwoman Linda W. Hayes was an energetic speech by Elizabeth City activist Paul Bryant, who called on the whole community to pull together against crime.
``I believe that the crime in Elizabeth City is holistic,'' Bryant said. ``It's time for everybody to get up and let's get busy.''
Bryant, known for forming new organizations and announcing meetings during public forums, said he was calling a meeting Dec. 8 for the entire community to form a crime-fighting coalition.
Then, he said, the group would come to the Governor's Crime Commission for money.
As the two-hour session drew to a close Thursday, Hayes called to Bryant, ``I want to know how that comes out'' and said she'd be checking to see if local Crime Commission members attend the meeting.
Another theme of the forum was support for programs to prevent crime.
``I see society becoming an institute of housing for people who do wrong,'' Elizabeth City Councilman Jimi Sutton said. ``The fact is, is that we've got to find a way to keep them out of these places. Nobody talks about that.''
Winfall Mayor Fred Yates, a Crime Commission member, told Sutton and others that a good portion of commission funds go toward prevention projects.
Yates was one of several dignitaries who sat at the head table on behalf of the Crime Commission. Among the others present were U.S. Attorney Janice McKenzie Cole, 1st District Judge J.C. Cole, Pasquotank County Commissioners Chairman Zee Lamb and SBI Director James J. Coman.
Filling in the audience were District Attorney Frank Parrish, local police chiefs and council members, heads of crime prevention agencies and students.
``I thought it provided some interesting insights, if you will, into the needs of the criminal justice system,'' Parrish said of the forum Friday. ``I found it enlightening.''
Parrish said he was particularly interested in the comments about crime prevention and finding holistic approaches to crime fighting. He said he would try to be at Bryant's Dec. 8 meeting.
Camden's Chief Deputy Perry said he hoped the commission would take northeastern North Carolina's concerns to heart.
``I hope that they will look out for us,'' Perry said, ``because we need help here bad.'' by CNB