THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408280088
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Get pulled over by a state trooper in Hampton Roads and he may do more than give you a ticket. Chances are he'll give you the once-over. Then he'll look you over again. Then he'll strike up a conversation.
This approach, with its focus on detail, is a part of a statewide program called Operation Alert. Implemented in 1992, the program calls upon troopers to spend extra time with offenders to determine if they've broken more than traffic laws.
On the highways that run from Virginia Beach and Newport News, the program has made a difference. State troopers arrested more criminals during 1993 and the first seven months of 1994 than in previous years.
According to FBI and state police data, state troopers in Hampton Roads made 933 more criminal arrests in 1993 than in 1992, and the trend is continuing. During the first seven months of this year, troopers in this area made 1,808 criminal arrests, rapidly approaching the total for all of 1993 - 1,857.
From 1988-1993, more than half of the arrests were for drunken driving, a criminal offense that often leads to additional charges, police said. There also has been an increase in drug-related arrests.
``There's been plenty of guns and dope out there,'' said Capt. William Johnson, who oversees the division of troopers in Hampton Roads. ``We are doing what we think a police officer should.''
At the State Police Training Academy, trainees engage in mock conversations with classmates posing as motorists and learn the basic techniques that will help them spot suspicious behavior. ``We teach them what to look for when they stop a car,'' said Sgt. Keith Hairston, an instructor at the academy.
Many of Operation Alert's lessons require little more than sense, both common and natural. A trooper smells, looks and listens for indicators - like the scent of pot wafting from the car or marijuana butts in the ashtray - as he approaches a car, Hairston said.
``We talk to the driver more now. Find out where he's going and see if his story goes along with everything else. If he says, for instance, that he's on a two-week driving trip, we'll look through the back window and see if there's any luggage,'' Hairston said.
Sounds simple enough, but since the program's implementation, criminal arrests by troopers are up not only in Hampton Roads, but across the state.
``It went over really well in the Tidewater area,'' said state police Lt. Col. Gerald Massengill, ``but those trends are happening statewide in urban and rural areas. We are seeing more arrests by uniformed patrol officers.''
Operation Alert is a logical extension of troopers' traffic duties because drug and gunrunners are taking to the highways, state police said.
``People who commit crimes have to travel,'' division commander Johnson said.
State troopers also point out that extra vigilance doesn't cost anything - except a bit of time.
``In the past, some of our people were prone to stop someone, issue a summons and leave,'' Johnson said.
But state police statistics show that while arrests climbed statewide, the number of speeding summonses issued across Virginia dropped 13.9 percent between the first six months of 1993 and 1994.
Operation Alert doesn't present an inherent either/or dilemma, Johnson said. ``We are just being extra alert, taking advantage of the situation while a person is stopped.''
And no one is suggesting state police should take over the duties of city officers. In the seven cities of Hampton Roads, city police make a total of more than 110,000 arrests yearly.
``The city police departments in these cities, all of which are good-size cities, have more people to start with,'' said Johnson, who estimated that there are about 75 state troopers patrolling the interstates in the seven cities.
``We don't have the massive number of officers because we don't have to concentrate on the whole city,'' he said.
Even if the arrest numbers are small when compared to city police figures, state police said the program is helping to curb crime on highways in Hampton Roads and across the state.
``We believe your best and safest society is the one policed from a traffic standpoint,'' Massengill explained, ``because the motor vehicle has become such a part of our lives.'' by CNB