THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410270420
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IN THE CITIES
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
If you think nobody will ever know that you've been arrested for soliciting a prostitute, then you'd better look inside your civic league newsletter.
Your neighbors are reading all about it.
Since last fall, at least three Norfolk civic organizations have printed monthly lists of neighborhood arrests for vice and narcotics charges.
Information includes the name, race and address of the alleged offender, as well as the charge.
Here's a sampling of offenses from the October issue of Ocean Winds, the newsletter of the East Ocean View Civic League: solicitation, visiting a bawdy place, prostitution, oral sodomy, cocaine possession, possession of crack with intent to distribute, marijuna possession, possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
``One of the first things people do when they get the newsletter is go look at the list of names,'' said James Janata, president of the East Ocean View Civic League. ``So we think it's going wonderfully.''
In this era of debate over ways to make the criminal justice system more deterrent oriented, these civic leagues have turned to an old-fashioned concept: public embarrassment. It's not unlike the colonial practice of putting criminals in a pillory on the village green.
Norfolk police, who supply the arrest lists, love the idea. They think it deters crime, especially prostitution.
Janata's Ocean Winds newsletter was the first to publish the lists. The idea came up at one anti-crime community meeting.
Aside from whatever deterrence value they provide, the lists have helped residents become better watchdogs.
``If you find out the guy next door to you was arrested for possession with intent, you'd start watching him, wouldn't you?,'' said John Roger, president of Norfolk's Bayview Civic League. ``And you'd keep your kids away from him, and you'd be watching every car that comes up to the house. You'd think, `Is this guy going to deal and bring these unsavory people into my neighborhood and all the other dangers they bring?' ''
Roger runs the vice and narcotics arrest list in the civic league's monthly Bayview Bylines and repeats the information, along with three-month summaries on other crimes, in its quarterly, Bayview Blockwatcher.
Roger believes readership is strong. Bayview Bylines, edited by his wife, Virginia, has a circulation of 850 while the Blockwatcher is received by more than 3,000 residents.
``I get a lot of phone calls from people saying, `Thank you,' '' said Roger.
Some landlords use the arrest lists to help screen tenants. The practice is legal if landlords are consistent in denying applicants who have been arrested, said Charles Hosay, Norfolk's fair housing coordinator.
``But it would be advisable,'' Hosay said, ``to have a stated criteria in writing and to keep records.''
Phyllis Eschert of Shore Rental Service which has 600 units in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, said she puts arrest information from civic league newsletters into her company's computer.
So far, she has spotted only two names from the vice and narcotics list in Ocean Winds. Both were drug dealers, and Eschert already had evicted them because she knew of their illegal activities.
But Eschert continues to check civic league newsletter lists.
``If we tighten the noose and keep tightening and tightening, sooner or later we'll drive them all out,'' she said. ``More people need to look at this information and say, `Sorry. We can't rent to you.' ''
As can be expected, publishing the vice and narcotics arrest lists can provide hairy moments for civic league presidents.
John and Virginia Roger report being threatened with lawsuits by two people.
One man, listed for a drug-dealing arrest, telephoned the Rogers twice to demand ``by whose authority we are publishing his name,'' Ginny Roger said. ``He was going to sue and said we didn't have any right to do this.''
The Rogers told the man the information came from public police records, and if he thought it was in error then he should call the police. ``And if you feel you want to bring suit, well, be our guest,'' John Roger said.
They never heard back.
The only other complaint, the Rogers said, was from a woman arrested for alleged prescription fraud. She contended that the charges were a mistake and the matter would be cleared in court. She requested a retraction.
``She even had some criminologist from Old Dominion University call me,'' John Roger said. ``I guess I was supposed to be impressed.''
The woman and the criminologist complained that lack of follow-up was unfair, Roger said.
``We don't track the courts,'' Roger explained. ``But I said, `Look, if she gets that case dismissed and she feels strongly about it, she can call us, and if we get some proof that the case was dismissed, we'll put something about it in the paper.'
``We're not trying to hurt anybody. We're just trying to inform the citizens about what's going on in the neighborhood.'' by CNB