THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110221
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 73 lines
Serious crime dropped about 7 percent overall in the city's public housing communities during 1996, according to figures released Monday by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
It reverses a 12 percent jump in crime in 1995 that had offset a trend toward fewer crimes that began in 1992.
Housing authority officials, police and residents cite a number of possible causes for the decline. Among them: a more visible police presence as well as a more vigilant effort by residents to patrol their streets and report crime to the authorities.
``I really see a change,'' said Wanda Gibson, a resident of Grandy Village. ``My kids can go out and play now, and there's no problem.''
When she moved to Grandy about six years ago, she said, ``It was hard to walk up to your doorway because of the drug dealers hanging around. There were drugs and guns hidden in your yard.''
The drug dealers don't hang around anymore, Gibson said. She's even been able to convert a bare, dirt yard - worn down by all the traffic - to a grassy lawn.
``People are really opening their eyes,'' she said, ``and are not being scared to voice their opinions.''
The statistics, compiled by Norfolk police as part of the city's uniform crime report to the FBI, reveal that the city's public housing communities had fewer murders, rapes, robberies to individuals, residential burglaries and vandalism.
About 10,700 people live in the neighborhoods, NRHA records indicate.
Overall, the nine neighborhoods reported 856 of the ``Part 1'' felony offenses in 1996, compared with 919 in 1995, the report said. During the past decade, reported crime reached its peak in 1991, with 1,078 Part 1 incidents reported.
Part 1 crimes are a category of felonies compiled by police departments nationwide as part of the FBI's annual uniform crime report.
The decline mirrors a citywide drop in serious crime of slightly more than 8 percent during 1996.
Ray Strutton, assistant executive director of the NRHA's housing operations, said the decision more than a year ago to station a police officer in each of the public housing neighborhoods is a factor in the drop. The police work out of offices in the housing complexes.
``That has had a very positive impact, and not only statistically,'' Strutton said. ``It provides a person on the street whose eyes and ears can see what's going on, and they can start recognizing faces.''
The Police Department's bicycle patrols, launched in the early 1990s, also contributed, Strutton said. In 1996, for example, the bicycle officers seized more than $47,000 in drugs from the nine neighborhoods, the bulk of it in Moton Circle and Roberts Village, the NRHA's report said. They also made 65 felony and 98 misdemeanor arrests.
Police spokesman Larry Hill said a united effort to combat crime by police, the housing authority and residents has paid off. Police Assisted Community Enforcement was a catalyst, he said.
``The citizens are getting more involved now than they ever have been,'' Hill said.
A safety and security survey conducted last May by the NRHA shows that residents generally feel safer and are more satisfied with the police.
Of those who responded to the survey, 60 percent said police were doing a better job than a year ago; 50 percent said the drug problem was not as bad; 57 percent said their neighborhood was a better place to live; and 70 percent disagreed that the crime problem in their community was more serious than in other Norfolk neighborhoods. ILLUSTRATION: A DROP IN SERIOUS CRIME
SOURCE: NHRA, Norfolk Police Department, FBI
The Virginian-Pilot
GRAPHIC
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KEYWORDS: CRIME STATISTICS PUBLIC HOUSING NRHA NORFOLK
POLICE