THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601250187
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS MISCELLANEOUS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 177 lines
DELORES ANDERSON was in bed trying to sleep one night last summer when she heard three gunshots somewhere nearby.
She remembers wondering what horrible thing could have happened so close to her Victory Manor home.
The next day, she was told a 58-year-old neighbor had been killed when he went to answer his front door.
The value of life had gone down another chilling notch in Portsmouth. Anderson's neighbor was one of three people killed in the city that night - one of two police believe were mistaken for other intended victims.
But Portsmouth's record year of murders would come even closer to home for Anderson two months later.
On Sept. 8, she got the late-night call every mother dreads. Her youngest son, 32-year-old Reginald A. Anderson, had been shot during a robbery in the Dale Homes public housing complex.
He was shot four times - twice in the head - and died the next day.
``I was told my son was down on his knees, begging, `Please don't kill me,' '' she said.
Anderson calls on her faith when that image haunts her. It's what has gotten her through the past four months.
And it's why this grandmother and longtime civil servant joined more than 400 people at Hunt-Mapp Middle School Saturday, their sentiments summed up in state Del. William S. Moore's rallying cry: ``Enough is enough!''
Anderson found she was not alone in her grief at the city's five-hour Crime Summit.
When participants split into 14 smaller groups to brainstorm solutions, Anderson met another mother whose son had been slain last year.
And when city council member Bernard Griffin spoke at a dinner that wrapped up the five-hour summit, he told how a nephew and friends of his sons had been murdered in the past three years.
Not everyone who flocked to the summit had experienced such tragedy. But everyone had been robbed of something they treasured - whether it was peace of mind or pride in their hometown.
When they left that school Saturday night, they had gained some of that pride back.
I thought it was great,'' said Dr. Max King, a resident of Crystal Lake and a member of the Cavalier Manor neighborhood patrol.
King took part in a group that came up with about 48 suggestions that later were condensed into four major categories.
The top concern among the group was the need for bond reform to prevent people who previously have failed to appear in court or who have histories of violence from being released on bond, he said.
That issue had been addressed during the opening session by Moore, who announced last week a Safe Streets legislation package that also includes bills aimed at increasing the penalty for obstruction of justice, assault on law enforcement officials, eluding police and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
``Far and away . . . I got the feeling a whole lot of people felt like the first problem was with the courts,'' King said.
King and other participants also were struck by the unity that took shape in those five hours.
Police Chief Dennis Mook saw that unity when he looked around the cafeteria where people came back together for dinner.
Participants were black and white, young and old, and they represented every economic level. But they ate together, talked and laughed.
``They found common ground,'' Mook said. ``They found something that brought them together in one force. All the barriers were broken down. That kind of effort does more good than all the diversity training we give people.''
Mook also was struck by the number of people who introduced themselves to him, shook his hand and told him they had come planning to stay for an hour, then stayed the entire time.
At the beginning of the event, Mook had addressed the audience on the need for the Police Department to change its crime-fighting strategy to one that is enhanced by partnerships with people in the community.
He said in the past, the department had been ``slaves to 911'' and that it was overwhelmed with work and calls for service.
Also, the department previously measured its success too much on the number of arrests made by officers, he said, adding that the department now needed to focus more on crime prevention.
``We want to have, eventually, less arrests and less clogging of the system,'' he told the audience. ``When you consider all types of arrests, in effect in 12 years we arrested the entire population of Portsmouth. That just doesn't make sense.''
The department's new community policing program, NEAT (Neighborhood Enhancement and Action Teams), is designed to bring police officers, citizens, businesses, churches and agencies together in an effort to solve community problems.
NEAT already has been implemented in two large areas in and around Prentis Park and Park View. The department has split the city into nine geographical areas and eventually all the ``mini-cities'' will be served by the program, Mook said.
The officers assigned to each of those areas will look beyond serious crimes to neighborhood problems ranging from ``piles of trash'' to ``abandoned automobiles.''
Such problems ``send a message out to the criminal element that no one cares about this neighborhood - I can go and set up shop . . .'' Mook said.
The neighborhoods that are plagued with more troublesome criminal activity will get the help of the department's Tactical Response Unit, which will use ``street sweeps and other tactics, 16 hours a day, six days a week,'' Mook said.
Already, he said, new programs and services are helping. They include the Reverse 911 program, which allows police to send out hundreds of computerized calls to neighborhoods if something occurs in their area, as well as a program for apartment managers that helps to keep the criminal element from moving from one property to another.
Neighborhood and business watches continue to grow, Mook said.
And the police department's authorized personnel has climbed to 250, about 30 officers more than the department had two years ago, Mook said later.
The department also has been awarded a grant that will allow it to hire five civilians to take over desk jobs, allowing trained officers serving in those positions to be used on the street.
Overall, crime is actually down 3.5 percent, largely because of a reduction in property crime.
Auto thefts, for example, have gone from a high of about 1,500 in 1990 down to 875, Mook said Monday.
But crimes against persons - murders, rapes and robberies - are up 9.8 percent.
Mook and citizens who spent three hours brainstorming in groups Saturday are ready for that to change.
This week, the Police Department was compiling the hundreds of suggestions on what residents believed would strengthen community police efforts in Portsmouth.
City Councilman Cameron Pitts called their work ``a great example of civic democracy.''
``And when a group of people get together with the proper information, they can come up with solutions and take ownership of the effect,'' he said.
Those suggestions will be pulled together in a document and used by a committee charged with looking at how to implement those ideas, Mook said.
``There were some good ideas,'' Mook said. ``One interesting idea was taking nonviolent prisoners and putting them in some empty schools.''
That was one of the ideas that came up in the group Delores Anderson worked with.
She liked it, too.
No. 1 in her group, though, was a call for more citizen involvement - everything from civic league membership to neighborhood watches.
She plans to retire in the next two or three years and says she thinks her role in the fight against crime probably will be working with children.
``My baby was 32 years old, but that doesn't mean that I've closed my eyes to these other kids,'' Anderson said.
She remembers one person in her group making the comment that they did not have trouble in their neighborhood.
``I said, `Where do you live - heaven?' ''
Anderson learned the hard way that crime does not notice neighborhood or economic boundaries.
``We're going to have to start reaching out to each other,'' she said. ``It's going to take all of us to win this war.'' MEMO: The opening and closing sessions of the Crime Summit will be aired on
WGOV TV Channel at 11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, Jan. 29 through
Feb. 7.
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
FIGHTING BACK
Staff photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Police Chief Dennis Mook stresses the need fo the Police Department
to change its crime-fighting strategy to one enhanced by
partnerships with people in the community.
Staff photos by MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Darnell Johnson, left, a summit organizer, welcomes his former math
student, Shawn Warren, to the meeting as a group leader, Candice
LeDoyen, explains the process to participants.
Darnell Johnson, left, and Candice LeDoyen, right, lay down the
ground rules for one of the brainstorming groups at Hunt Mapp Middle
School last Saturday.
Harvey Johnson had participants repeat after him: "I know that I
cannot do everything, but I can do something. And what I can do I
ought to do..."
by CNB