DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997              TAG: 9704120289

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   48 lines

NEW POLICE FIELD STATION OPENS IN DEEP CREEK

The city's first community policing field station serving a business district opened Friday in Cavalier Industrial Park in Deep Creek.

Chesapeake police established the office at the request of business people who are concerned about theft and other crimes in the area.

Browning-Ferris Industries donated a small office in its building at the industrial park.

Police and business leaders marked the opening of the office with a lunchtime barbecue Friday. Business leaders also gathered for an organizational meeting of what they hope will be the Cavalier Industrial Park Business Association, said Mark Bacon, vice president of Browning-Ferris Industries.

Police officers met with representatives from the industrial park several months ago to discuss the need for a new office. The former 3rd Precinct, located in Bowers Hill, has been transformed into a fire station to accommodate female firefighters, said police Capt. Billy Spruill, commander of the 4th Precinct in Western Branch.

The new field office will make it unnecessary for police to drive several miles to Western Branch to file a report or do other office work.

The small office at 3821 Cook Blvd. will not take the place of the former 3rd Precinct, Spruill said.

But the 12-by-15-foot office will give officers a place to make telephone calls, use the fax and copying machines, write reports and use the restroom. Police will have access to the office 24 hours a day. The space includes a conference room that seats 75 people and a small exercise room equipped with free weights, Bacon said. Police can hold community meetings about public safety in the conference room, he said.

Having police drive in and out of the park will make business owners and employees feel safer, Bacon said. ``There was some concern about security in the park at night'' at an earlier business association meeting, he said.

Increased police traffic through the industrial park should deter crime, as well, Spruill said.

``It's not a real high crime area,'' said Spruill, who added that thieves have broken into several cars in the industrial park recently. ``But the presence of police officers certainly deters crime.''

Chesapeake police have community policing field stations in several residential neighborhoods: the Broadlawn neighborhood at 1700 Acorn St.; Cambridge Manor Apartments at 3134 Fairview St., Apt. 101; Harvard Apartments, 2625 Yale Court, Apt. 4; and Maplewood Apartments, 3829 Maple Field Drive.

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