THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210818
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 83 lines
Soon after the gymnasium of Hunt-Mapp Middle School was vandalized recently, anonymous notes implicating the perpetrators began appearing under the door of the school's liaison police officer.
``We had a massive destruction of property to the gym area,'' said Detective J.T. Lee, ``and students were kind enough to leave notes under the door telling us about it.''
Similar notes were left after a recent theft at the school. The stolen items were recovered and the thieves punished.
These acts have led to the establishment of a crime phone line for students at Hunt-Mapp, the first middle school in Portsmouth to implement such a program.
Anonymous tip lines were supposed to be established in the city's three high schools first. Wilson High School has had its crime line in place for about two years, while Churchland and I.C. Norcom are still in the initial stages of starting theirs.
``In my opinion, it's better at the middle school level,'' said Detective Jimmy Ennis, the city's Crime Line coordinator. ``If we can educate students and get them on the right track at middle school, by the time they get to high school, the program's not a stranger to them, and hopefully it makes the high school a better place to be.''
On Thursday, school officials, members of the Police Department and student members of the crime line programs at Wilson and Churchland high schools met at Hunt-Mapp to help kick off its program, dubbed ``Injustice Deciphers.''
``We hope to see a reduction in some kinds of incidents because of it,'' Hunt-Mapp Principal Carroll Bailey Jr. said. ``We're always telling students if they have troubles to go to the nearest adult or come and talk to us, but sometimes they don't feel like they really can, so this really gives them an outlet.''
The first student crime line in South Hampton Roads was established about three years ago in Virginia Beach at Princess Anne High School. Since then, school programs have sprung up in Portsmouth, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Chesapeake is getting one started in its schools.
The student tip lines in Portsmouth, however, will differ from the others, Ennis said.
``We're allowing the students to actually set up and receive their own tips and make their own reward pay-outs, just like I do here for the main program,'' he said.
In contrast, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Suffolk schools direct their calls and make their reward payments through each city's regular crime line program.
The school lines work exactly like the ones city police departments use.
Portsmouth students may call a special phone line set up at their schools to leave tips anonymously with a faculty adviser or on an answering machine. If the tips lead to an arrest, students are eligible for cash rewards.
The Hunt-Mapp program is run by a board of 11 students and two faculty members. The board is responsible for raising reward money.
At Wilson High School, the tip line has been used to solve numerous incidents that otherwise may have gone unreported, said Angela Hobbs, 18, president of Wilson's crime line program, called Crime Stoppers.
The program has helped solve ``little things,'' she said, ``from students having their lockers broken into, to graffiti on the walls, to cars being broken into and radios stolen.''
Though Churchland High School has not yet installed a separate phone line for its program, students there know they already can come forward with information.
``We've had a few cases as early as September and October that we've solved,'' said Lindsay Disbrow, the school's police liaison. ``Once we got the word out, kids came to us kind of quickly and gave us information.'' ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Detective Jimmy Ennis, coordinator of Portsmouth's crime line
program, says the Hunt-Mapp Middle School line will be better than
those at area high schools. He said it will get middle school
students used to the program so it's ``not a stranger to them and
hopefully it makes the high school a better place to be.''
Graphic
PROGRAM CATCHES ON
The first student crime line in South Hampton Roads was
established about three years ago in Virginia Beach at Princess Anne
High School.
Next, school programs sprang up in Portsmouth, Norfolk and
Suffolk.
Chesapeake is now getting one started in its schools.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SCHOOLS CRIME LINE