THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180290
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 64 lines
Norfolk State University has won a $633,000 federal grant to hire 10 more police officers to patrol the campus and the surrounding Brambleton area, university officials announced Monday.
With the grant from the U.S. Justice Department, the campus will increase its staff to 33 officers by the summer, said campus Police Chief Jacqueline Cooper.
At a news conference on campus Monday morning, Norfolk State and city officials said the grant would strengthen their joint campaign against crime, with everyone sharing the benefits.
``Nothing is an island,'' city Police Chief Melvin C. High said. ``If this can help make the community safer, the university will be safer, too. . . . I see nothing but an upturn if we work together.''
Likewise, Norfolk State President Harrison B. Wilson talked about the need to help the neighborhood. Brambleton, he said, has many elderly homeowners who are ``captive in their homes after dark. We want to make sure everyone feels comfortable walking down the streets.''
The number of crimes in Brambleton declined last year. But its violent-crime rate last year was more than double the city'saverage - 22 per 1,000 residents, vs. Norfolk's 10 per 1,000.
In the last five years, more than a handful of NSU students have been killed, most in the surrounding Brambleton section. Last year, one of three murder victims in the area was a Norfolk State student, George L. ``Tre'' Mills III, a sophomore from Richmond.
The new officers will be on NSU's payroll, but they will patrol the campus and neighborhood. Under a jurisdictional agreement with the city, NSU police may pick up suspects in the Brambleton area and arrest them. Norfolk has a similar arrangement with Old Dominion University.
The staffing increase will expand the neighborhood's Community Watch program and will allow city and campus police to staff a satellite station at Marshall Avenue and Olney Road around-the-clock.
``I think it's great,'' said Monquez Hunter, a junior majoring in criminal justice who lives in Norfolk's Norview neighborhood. ``It should decrease some crime on the campus and in the neighborhood.''
The initiative is one part of the ``extensive commitment of Norfolk State to its low-income neighbors and to uplifting their life and life's chances,'' said Carolyn W. Bell, the university's associate vice president for development and community relations.
Norfolk State has received nearly $2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in recent years to renovate eight houses, build five new ones and train about 15 area residents in construction.
Bell said HUD recently agreed to provide an additional $500,000 grant to expand the university's Brambleton Community Outreach Center on Corprew Avenue. The center provides after-school care for children, activities for senior citizens and health fairs, she said.
At a university board meeting last month, Wilson expressed impatience with the city's efforts to improve the neighborhood and said it should move faster to raze abandoned buildings. But Monday, he stressed the theme of cooperation, saying, ``Norfolk State is very serious about working with the city and the proper authorities to do the things that need to be done.''
At the press conference, City Councilman Paul R. Riddick said the city has repeatedly applied for federal grants to revitalize the neighborhood. That, coupled with private initiatives, ``will put Brambleton back into prominence,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: CRIME NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY GRANT POLICE