(3 of 5)
On the other hand, LEAA funds have also been dissipated. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for example, each of 34 deputies got a new police car for use on and off duty, ostensibly to increase a local sense of police presence. Cost: $150,000. The popularity of antiriot hardware prompted Winona, Minn., to use $9,000 in LEAA funds to outfit its 37 policemen with riot gear, although a nearby National Guard armory had plenty of similar equipment. A study of organized crime in Illinois uncovered information that was already in the files of the Chicago crime commission. "There has been a tremendous amount of public money flushed down the LEAA drain," says Northwestern Law Professor Fred Inbau, a self-described hardliner on law-and-order.
The Administration has also made a major effort to curb the drug traffic, since addicts are blamed for as much as one-half of all big-city street crime. Pressured by Washington, Turkey has banned the growing of opium poppies, and the U.S. has increased its force of customs officers. The Administration has also been urging local police forces to give urine tests to all arrested suspects. Under this proposal, discovered drug users who agree to compulsory treatment can have their prosecution delayed, and eventually the charges may be dropped; a version of the idea was adopted last week by New York Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy.
Despite Nixon's various plans and programs, the job of crime fighting remains a problem for local police—and local citizens. On that level, increased attention to community-relations programs often helps to alleviate citizens' fears and frequently brings a bonus in citizen cooperation. In Chicago, after nervous civilians organized nine radio patrols of their own in a racially changing neighborhood, police met with the groups in an effort to avoid the danger of vigilante action. "A rapport developed," says one officer, "and the patrols have helped beyond description." Detroit Commissioner Nichols, who appears at a black radio station for a weekly talk show, Buzz the Fuzz, is convinced that public attitudes are changing. "They no longer necessarily believe that the police can do no right," he says. During one recent raid on a Detroit dope pad, the arresting officers were stunned when neighborhood people came out on the street to applaud.
Concentration of police efforts is another tactic that can pay off handsomely. In Holyoke, Mass., two years ago, a team of twelve cops was permanently assigned to a lower-class neighborhood (10% black, 40% Spanish-speaking, 50% white ethnic) and given full responsibility for all criminal cases in the area—from start to finish. John Goss, assistant to the chief, says, "That gave the cops a sense of satisfaction. And the people soon began calling on them without fear. The result is that violent crime has disappeared from the neighborhood." In a successful Los Angeles version, a patrol car manned round the clock by three trios of officers is assigned to a single neighborhood.