By Mark Bowes, The Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.)
Police Chief Reuben Greenberg of Charleston, S.C., likes to think of community safety as a “product.”
Greenberg said Charleston attracted 4 million tourists last year, up a half million from the year before. People “don’t want to be tourists where they have to risk their lives and the lives of their children,” he said.
Greenberg didn’t specifically mention Richmond in his analogy. He could have been talking about any city, large or small, with a crime problem.
But many Richmonders attending yesterday’s anti-crime forum at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School seemed to nod knowingly. Richmond’s “product” could use a makeover, one man whispered.
The crowd of more than 200 people frequently clapped with approval at other Greenberg observations as he related his crimefighting successes and how they might be used in Richmond.
The crowd buzzed when he said Charleston, with 96,000 residents, had 17 homicides last year.
Richmond, with 197,000 people, had 94 killings in 2003.
“We cannot eliminate crime, but we can reduce it,” said Greenberg, noting that open-air drug markets in Charleston are “virtually gone.”
Greenberg, who was invited to Richmond by City Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, acknowledged that each locality is different and there is no “magic wand or magic process” that will make crime disappear.
But by taking deliberate steps to reduce crime - whether it be running criminal background checks on public housing applicants or confiscating the beds of prostitutes - a community can make a substantial difference in its quality of life.
Greenberg, who was hired as Charleston’s chief in 1982 when the city’s murder rate was nearly twice the national average, is well known for his “Take Back the Streets” mission in the 1980s.
He was well received by yesterday’s crowd, which included residents, city leaders and a sizable contingent of Richmond police officers. He was introduced by Mayor Rudolph C. McCollum Jr., who declared that he would not allow the issue of crime “to define the city of Richmond.”
While noting many of the city’s positive developments, McCollum told the audience it would all be for naught “if we don’t get a handle on crime.”
Among city leaders, McCollum and Robertson were joined by City Council members G. Manoli Loupassi, William J. Pantele, Bill Johnson and Delores L. McQuinn, and City Manager Calvin D. Jamison.
Before the forum, Greenberg took a bus tour of Richmond. On the itinerary were stops at the city jail, some public housing areas and open-air drug markets.
Robertson invited Greenberg to Richmond, his second formal trip here since 1994, because of his reputation for dramatically reducing the number of drug hot spots in Charleston.
Several questions from yesterday’s audience centered on that problem, as well as street prostitution and a disproportionate amount of crime in Richmond’s housing projects.
Drawing approval from the crowd, Greenberg said crime in Charleston’s public-housing areas is now lower than in any other city community. He said the police department has worked with the city’s housing authority to attract law-abiding tenants; criminals are rooted out or prevented from taking residency by first screening them through background checks.
One of the largest bursts of applause came when one of Greenberg’s aides encouraged the use of police foot patrols. Her remarks were in response to a statement that said Richmond police were already doing many of the things being done by Greenberg’s department, except for foot patrols.
After the forum, former Richmond Mayor Walter T. Kenney Sr. said he also noticed the crowd’s positive response to the foot-patrol idea.
“I don’t think there is any question that [it would be a positive development] if we had more foot patrols, if that was a possibility,” he said. “Hopefully, it will be. I think more people would be satisfied.”
William Russell, a resident of North Side, agreed. “I liked some of the ideas” mentioned during the forum, he said. “I think the Richmond Police Department is doing a lot of that.” But they just might not have enough foot patrols, he said.
Russell said he considered the event “a very good step in the right direction.”
Kenney believes it will help galvanize citizen involvement.
“At the same time,” he said, “it hopefully will bring all the agencies in the city closer together on how we can prevent crime in our city, and work with the youths in our schools and the various agencies that deal with the criminal justice system.”