Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 Source: Daily Gazette (NY) Copyright: 2001 The Gazette Newspapers Contact: http://www.dailygazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/105 BE MORE VIGILANT WITH VICE Of course it's an outrage that drug dealers and prostitutes are plying their wares on Schenectady streets at 8 o'clock in the morning, within sight of schoolchildren waiting for the bus. But there was just one proper response for city officials who were apprised of the situation at Monday's City Council meeting: We're outraged, too, and we'll get police on it right away. Unfortunately, that was not quite the reaction Olivia Adams - president of the local NAACP - got when she complained about the situation. Instead, Corporation Counsel Michael Brockbank asked her to provide names to assist police, while Mayor Albert Jurczynski and Councilman Frank Maurizio implied that the problem couldn't be solved unless the city school district cooperates. Wrong! The problem is the police department's failure to do a better job monitoring a neighborhood where activities of this sort have gone on for years. The department stages periodic crackdowns on the dealers, prostitutes and johns, then it backs off. Within a few months, the hookers are out of jail and back on their favorite corners, and new dealers have moved in to take the old ones' places. Granted, an apparent streetwalker or drug dealer can't be arrested on mere suspicion; a case must be made and evidence gathered. But when they're out on the street in plain view, to the extent that the residents of the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods say they are, it's obvious that the cops need to pay more consistent attention. And it shouldn't take a call from a school bus driver to get police to take notice, or an eyewitness to do the grunt work. Not when the activities are so blatant and residents in the neighborhoods have complained about them for years. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl