DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050072

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E13  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

WATCH OUT: MOM PATROL CRUISES MALL

NORFOLK MOUNTS cameras in school buses. Virginia Beach hires teen-agers to patrol the Oceanfront strip. And the federal government makes cashiers card anyone who looks younger than 27 before buying cigarettes.

There must be 50 million ways to tame a teen-ager.

In an effort to control the throngs of youth who hang out at the nation's largest shopping complex, management at the Mall of America in Minnesota has gone where no other mall has gone before: It has hired their parents.

Twenty ``Mighty Moms'' and 10 ``Dedicated Dads'' cruise the mall on weekend nights from 5 to 10 p.m., practicing ``verbal judo'' on up to 5,000 unsupervised teens who go to shop or just hang out.

Verbal judo? ``That's a technique developed by the New York Police Department to talk people into voluntary compliance,'' explained mall spokeswoman Teresa McFarland.

The parents, who make 20 bucks an hour, are in addition to a regular security force patrolling the mall's 520 stores, 7-acre indoor amusement park, walk-through aquarium, and putt-putt golf course. They wear bright yellow T-shirts and baseball caps. They've done everything from diffusing fights to to kicking teens out for cursing or violating the weekend parental escort policy for those under 16.

Kids who might ``smart off'' to a uniformed security guard have a different reaction when they are talking to a mom or a dad, McFarland said. ``With a mom, that tendency isn't really there,'' she said.

When it comes to teen-agers, malls must be masters at public relations, welcoming them to shop and at the same time discouraging them from loitering.

``It's a precarious balance,'' said Mark J. Schoifet, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers. ``On one hand, they are good customers and you don't want to do anything to alienate them. On the other hand, you want a safe, comfortable environment for customers and tenants.''

No mall can afford to alienate teens, who control a large portion of the nation's consumer market.

A December 1996 study by Teen Research Unlimited found that teens spent about $103 billion in 1996. Teens visit malls more often than other age segments of the population and spend more time there. And while teens spend less than their adult counterparts on average each time they visit the mall - $38.55 compared with $59.20 for adults - their high discretionary spending potential makes them important customers.

South Hampton Roads mall operators say we won't see any Mighty Moms keeping the peace here anytime soon. Local malls rely on traditional security officers and codes of conduct that cover everything from cursing to staring to carrying weapons.

Military Circle Mall is copying one of the Mall of America's tactics: installing cameras in the parking lot that are powerful enough to discern whether a coin is lying heads or tails on the pavement.

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