THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702080353
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 67 lines
Kids should know their ABCs, parents and teachers agree. And adults should know their ABC agents, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control believes.
In a move toward community policing, the state's five ABC regions have been divided into eight, so the agents will have less territory to cover and more time to bond with their customers.
The ABC agents want to be your next-door neighbor, a member of your church choir or a familiar face in the grocery store. They want to be more accessible, not only to the restaurants, stores and bars that sell alcohol but also to the public.
``We're trying to be more responsive to the needs of the community,'' said Robert M. Brooks Jr., who was promoted to special agent in charge of the newly created Hampton Region.
The ABC law enforcement bureau is responsible for enforcing laws governing the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages, with emphasis on regulations relating to public safety.
The agents should be able to respond more quickly when they hear of a business selling alcohol to a teen-ager or to someone who is intoxicated. They will be available to help local law enforcement officials break up a fight in a bar or a ``keg party'' with teen-agers present.
The new structure allows agents to cover a specific territory rather than special assignments.
Until recently, the Hampton Roads Region sprawled from the Oceanfront west to Southampton and Sussex counties and north to James City and Middlesex counties.
Agents were often on the road to reach businesses they covered or attend meetings with supervisors.
``There was no way we could be effective and respond to complaints,'' Brooks said.
Now, the former region has been split into two - Chesapeake and Hampton.
Brooks' former boss, Leon C. Coleman, supervises 15 special agents in the Chesapeake Region.
Brooks oversees nine special agents whose assignments often differ greatly from those in metropolitan areas. Agents in the rural areas sometimes stumble across a moonshine still or a marijuana patch deep in the woods, he said.
Brooks started law enforcement work with the Suffolk Police Department in 1974, when he was 20 and the youngest on the force.
``I couldn't even buy my own gun or ammunition,'' he said.
He also worked for the Franklin police before joining the ABC's Bureau of Enforcement in 1977.
Brooks lives in the Driver section of Suffolk with his family, and is active in community and church events.
To contact your ABC agent, call 1-800-552-3200. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Robert M. Brooks Jr.
Graphic
ABC REALIGNMENT
Chesapeake Region: Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia
Beach and Accomack and Northampton counties.
Hampton Region: Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson,
Suffolk, Williamsburg and Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City,
Mathews, Middlesex, Southampton, Surry, Sussex and York counties.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINA DEPARTMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL
AGENTS