Pubdate: Wed, 06 Mar 2002
Source: Chapel Hill News (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Chapel Hill News
Contact:  http://www.chapelhillnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1081
Author: Virginia Knapp

POLICE WORK TO CUFF CRIME IN NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD

Despite 12 Hours Of Foot And Bike Patrols Six Days A Week By A Special Task 
Force, Neighbors Complain Of Open Drug Deals On The Streets.

CHAPEL HILL -- Police share some Northside residents' frustrations over 
crime in that neighborhood, but say that community-policing initiatives are 
making slow but steady progress.

"It didn't become a bad situation overnight, and it won't be solved 
overnight," Police Chief Gregg Jarvies said. "The residents have seen their 
neighborhood and community go down over the last six to 10 years, and they 
are feeling that frustration. We just hope that they don't give up hope. We 
are committed to making Northside the neighborhood it once was."

The historically black community near downtown has been under the 
microscope lately as community leaders, town staff and elected officials 
work to combat the area's drug and housing problems.

In the last year, a committee of residents, UNC students and town officials 
has met several times to brainstorm ideas for ways to preserve the 
neighborhood, and last week Mayor Kevin Foy held a community forum to get 
more input from residents.

On Monday, the Town Council heard how some of those ideas are being 
implemented. The council focused on crime and public safety issues because 
those concerns top the list of priorities for residents.

"It's certainly not the only neighborhood with problems, but they were open 
and had a direct effect on residents not feeling safe walking down their 
own streets," Jarvies said. "The open, street-level drug trafficking was 
visible and brazen."

Last September, a Police Department task force was organized specifically 
to deal with those narcotics-related crimes in Northside, as well as 
nuisance offenses.

The eight-member task force provides 12 hours of foot and bike patrols six 
days a week in Northside in addition to the regular car patrols that cover 
the area.

Jarvies said that since September, the task force has made about 200 
arrests for various offenses like drugs and break-ins, and officers have 
written many more citations for littering, noise and illegal parking.

"I think we are making a dent, but we've not reached the peak yet in the 
impact we could have," Jarvies said.

He said officers were frustrated with a cycle of "arrest, convict, arrest 
again" that is not effective in keeping repeat offenders off the streets. 
Residents share that complaint, saying the dealers and addicts are familiar 
faces in the neighborhood.

"I see no reason why we can't put the same pressure on the court system as 
we are on the mayor and the council," R.D. Smith, a longtime Northside 
resident, said as he urged tougher sentencing to keep repeat offenders from 
re-entering Northside.

Another community policing effort that the Police Department has instituted 
is assigning an officer to work on "environmental" issues in the area.

Officer Phil Smith works with Empowerment Inc., an affordable housing 
agency, and other community groups, as well as homeowners and landlords, to 
identify dilapidated homes and see them through the process of renovation 
or removal.

"Every one of those homes that gets rehabilitated and owned by a family who 
is going to take care of it, every time we do that, the neighborhood 
becomes more like the neighborhood it used to be," Jarvies said. "And we'll 
continue to work on the environment to improve lighting and sidewalks and 
redesign neighborhoods to make them safer.

"There aren't a lot of new (community-policing) programs out there. It's 
many of the programs of old that work the best, building community by 
direct outreach, lots of communication, officers getting involved and 
neighbors getting involved."

Both Jarvies and other town officials credited residents with stepping in 
and cooperating with police to clean up the neighborhood.

"The neighbors have been providing a lot of leadership," Town Manager Cal 
Horton told the Town Council.

The Northside Neighborhood Association, Community Watch, Hargraves 
Community Center and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Residents' Council are some 
of the groups active in the area, but officials want to see even more 
residents speaking out.

"The challenge rests with the town, the Police Department, the business 
community and the schools to make the changes necessary so that residents 
will say, 'If I get involved, then I will see some positive results,'" 
Jarvies said. "We're just one partner of many."

Chapel Hill planner Loryn Barnes said that the committee of residents, 
students and officials are meeting again Thursday to continue talking about 
crime solutions and what's already happening on the ground.

"We've gotten participation from residents that we hadn't had before," 
Barnes said. "We're going to focus on spreading the word with them about 
the new policing initiatives. Hopefully, by sharing that information, more 
people will see the changes and want to get involved."

The Town Council asked to be kept updated on improvements in the area and 
how they could help.

"We expect that we'll all be continuing to work on this," Foy said.

One decision the council must make soon is how the Police Department budget 
will look next year. Jarvies said that a loss of nearly 20 percent of the 
department's patrol strength in the last year has affected coverage.

"We have a need for more people," Jarvies said. "It would be really nice to 
have enough officers to provide a regular bike patrol or foot patrol. If we 
were at full strength, we could provide full coverage."

But Jarvies said that staff shortages would not undermine the effort in the 
Northside community.

"We all are seeing some progress being made," Jarvies said. "Northside is 
not being ignored. There is much more hope on the horizon now than there 
was even a couple years ago."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart