Pubdate: Thu, 31 Mar 2005
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily
home delivery circulation area.
Author: Patrick Wilson

POLICE OFFER NEW HOPE TO AREA

Some Cleveland Avenue drug dealers won't be arrested if they stop selling

Twelve people caught dealing drugs in Cleveland Avenue Homes are being
offered a deal.

If they stop, they won't be arrested. Continue, and the district attorney
will prosecute.

The concept is part of a new program that the Winston-Salem Police
Department, along with churches and other agencies, is pursuing in the
neighborhood. Cleveland Avenue Homes is part of an area with the highest
concentration of crime in Winston-Salem.

The plan includes video surveillance to identify drug dealers. Those who do
not have a lengthy criminal record are being offered help with food, housing
and substance-abuse counseling, instead of prison.

In recent months, police have arrested 18 other people for drug-related
crimes. And the department said it is using officers from its foot patrols
and special-enforcement team to watch the area 24 hours a day. "You don't
want to be a drug dealer in the Cleveland Avenue community," said Capt.
David Clayton, the commander of the police department's
special-investigations division.

"If you are, you're going to get caught and you're going to go to prison for
a lot of years."

Police modeled the program after one in High Point in which police focused
on an area with drugs and high crime. Criminals were given an option - if
they stopped their activities they would not be prosecuted.

Police Chief Pat Norris wanted to try it in Winston-Salem. It is being
called the "new-hope initiative."

"Our objective here is to stop open-air drug markets," Clayton said. "When
you stop open-air drug markets, you reduce crime."

Such dealers peddle small rocks of crack cocaine and have not always been a
prime target of the department.

But the activity leads to other crimes, such as break-ins and robberies,
police said.

To crack down, the police department identified the area with the most drug
activity and crime.

A report from its crime-analysis unit showed it to be between 14th and 23rd
streets and Liberty Street and Claremont Avenue. That includes the Cleveland
Avenue Homes public housing.

Police told church leaders and community activists about their plans then
started doing undercover surveillance in the area last August.

Undercover detectives bought drugs and took photographs and videos of people
buying and selling drugs. They identified 31 people to focus on.

Eighteen had such lengthy records that they were arrested, Clayton said, and
some of the 18 will qualify as habitual felons.

One person was later arrested on other charges, but 12 of those identified
were offered a deal.

Norris sent a letter to them and their families inviting them to a meeting
at the public-safety center on Tuesday - and assuring them that they would
not be charged.

All 12 showed up and listened as police talked about crime and showed the
suspects videos of themselves in criminal activity.

"We told them that we will not use this evidence against them if they will
voluntarily stop selling drugs," Clayton said.

Church leaders and officials from the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem
were among the people at the meeting who told the suspects about options for
jobs and substance-abuse treatment. Churches will offer food, clothing, and
spiritual guidance, said the Rev. Otha Bud McManus, an associate pastor at
New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church.

"The churches are totally involved in this effort," McManus said. "It brings
the whole community together."

Police and their partners went door to door in Cleveland Avenue Homes
yesterday passing out a flier with phone numbers to report drug dealing and
announcing the drug crackdown.

Other partners include probation and parole officers in Forsyth County, the
Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments and the Winston-Salem Urban
League.

Willie Coker, a street worker for the Center for Community Safety, noticed
that the only people outside in Cleveland Avenue yesterday were women and
children. Young men involved in drugs are wondering if they have been caught
on tape, he said.

"Within the last couple of months, it's changed a great deal," Coker said.

"I actually think it's a good thing," said Gwen King, who is staying with
her mother in the Cleveland Avenue neighborhood. But she didn't know how
many people would begin reporting crime.

"I think people are actually afraid," she said. 
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