THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 

                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994                    TAG: 9406030288 
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON                     PAGE: 06    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940605                                 LENGTH:

WHAT FLIES IN THE BEACH BUDGET

{LEAD} The slaying last month of Newport News Police Officer Larry Bland prompted some soul- and statistics-searching in police departments beyond the Peninsula. Neighboring cities have seen the recent rise in violent crime far outpace the rise in police manpower. Not so in Virginia Beach.

Nobody's exactly proud of a crime rate, not even a relatively low one. Even so, this city's incidents of violent crime, though up, are still half Norfolk's; its police complement is about the same. Expressed another way, Virginia Beach has the lowest number of violent felonies per officer in Hampton Roads: 2. Norfolk's number is 4.2; Newport News', 6.9.

{REST} Part of lying low on that chilling chart is keeping the city's police budget up. Most members of City Council not only profess public safety; they vote the budgets to pay for it. At $47 million for 1994-95, police funding is up 6.6 percent over 1993-94.

As important as how much is budgeted is how it's spent. Student Sharon Doetsch has some thoughts on police priorities, expressed elsewhere on this page. Officer Bland's murder and a Memorial Day feature on police helicopters meld into other thoughts on the subject as well.

Helicopters are, police say, particularly effective, frequently faster and often safer in high-speed pursuits or following up foot pursuits, in burglary apprehension, SWAT team deployments, in search-and-rescue day and night in inconvenient places where people nevertheless end up and need others to come after them.

The Beach has the only police helicopters based in the region. In 1993, they answered 1,167 police calls, contributing directly or indirectly to 100 felony and 50 misdemeanor arrests and the recovery of $18,000 in stolen property. They assisted the Fire Department 15 times, other Beach agencies 21, the Coast Guard four, other federal agencies 10. Last month, under a mutual aid agreement with all Hampton Roads cities, a Beach helicopter responded within an hour to Newport News' request to help search for Officer Bland's slayer.

Beach police bear the expense: $201,290 (plus some federal asset-forfeiture funds) for operation and maintenance this year, plus personnel, training, etc. Could the neighbors who call on Beach helicopters occasionally kick in? Does the city's own Economic Development department reimburse Police when its helicopters ferry prospective businessmen to prospective business sites? Better question: Why do police helicopters ferry these businessmen?

They've better things to do, or should, as Virginia and Christopher Traylor know. When 4-year-old Christopher II went missing in January, his parents' first thought was: Call the police helicopter. They did. It came. It found him, fast.

Police helicopters: a pricey buy for a city taxpayer to make - and hope he never needs.

by CNB