The Journal takes a quick look at senior WSPD officers who plan to apply for police chief while taking a longer look at outgoing chief Pat Norris’ tenure. Norris had to deal with the fallout of both the Daryl Hunt and the Jill Marker cases. Crime has gone up, though, and her “innovative way” of dealing fight drugs hasn’t quite worked out as planned:
While Norris has been chief, most crime numbers have remained steady or gone up slightly, after years of declines, a trend seen across the nation.
State crime statistics show that the rate of violent crime in Winston-Salem was up about 6 percent from 2004 to 2006, and property crime was up 7 percent. The city appears headed for a decline in both categories this year.
So many factors go into crime, criminologists say, that modern police chiefs can also be measured by how they respond to changes in crime and their willingness to try new ways of fighting crime, said Lyn Exum, a professor of criminology at UNC Charlotte whose work includes evaluating police programs.
“Police departments used to be isolated, in a sense of they know what needs to be done and they’re going to go out and do it, research be damned,” Exum said. “That’s a mark I think of excellence for a police chief, to be willing to say ‘I may not know what all the answers are and I’m willing to listen to outsiders.’”
…..Under Norris, police also tried what’s been hailed as an innovative way to fight open-air drug markets.
The department called it the “New Hope Initiative,” a strategy hailed as a success in High Point and in cities across the country.
Police built cases against drug dealers in the Cleveland Avenue neighborhood, then offered those without lengthy criminal records a deal: If they would stop peddling drugs, their cases wouldn’t be prosecuted.
Police also put dealers in contact with community agencies that could help them find jobs.
The short-term results seemed impressive – more arrests, fewer police calls, fewer crimes reported. But pouring police resources into the area has been hard to maintain and crime has returned to some of its previous levels, city leaders admit.
If you didn’t before, note the paragraphs in bold. Though Norris has been chief for just under four years, she was a police department insider who worked her way up after joining the force in 1977. Perhaps it’s time city leaders take the approach recommended by prof. Exum and be willing to listen to some ideas from an outsider. And we’re not talking a paid consultant, either.
