RESIDENTS, POLICE JOIN FORCES TO RECLAIM A NEIGHBORHOOD

Tips On Lawbreaking, Patrols, Housing Code Enforcement Turn Tide

KINGS MOUNTAIN -- The Rev. Pruella Sanders isn't hearing the same old
complaints from church members who live in the Hilltop neighborhood.

She thinks that's a sign the crime that once paralyzed the community has
receded - like a cancer in remission.

"The police are more visible," said Sanders, pastor at Adams Chapel AME
Zion Church, at the foot of Kings Pinnacle Mountain off N.C. 161. "They're
around more. I think it makes a difference."

It's been a year since deadly violence wracked the neighborhood, sending
two young men to early graves and signaling the community was sliding into
a familiar pattern of crime.

Hilltop swarmed with drug buyers, illicit nightclubs, trash-strewn yards
and ramshackle rental houses. Residents often awoke to gunfire.

Kings Mountain police, who began serving the predominantly black
neighborhood 19 months ago when the city annexed it, say Hilltop is turning
around - largely because of efforts to force out crime and blight. The
volume of calls for service, including nuisance complaints, drug activity,
robberies and assaults, have dropped significantly, police say.

"Our No. 1 objective was to make the neighborhood livable again," said
Kings Mountain police Lt. Derek Johnson. "When the city took over, we knew
we would have a problem up there. Before waiting for the problem to come
and bite us, we went after it."

Hilltop suffered from years of poverty and neglect. A decade ago, it was
known as the place to buy drugs. Its location - off Interstate 85 on the
Gaston-Cleveland County line and beside the S.C. state border - meant easy
access for residents of four counties. Some Hilltop renters stayed just a
few months at a stretch in rundown houses owned by absentee landlords. Its
location meant long response times for the Gaston County Police, who
patrolled the neighborhood from their base 10 miles away in Gastonia.

In 1991, a fatal stabbing at an illegal bar on Hillway Drive prompted
Gaston County Police and residents to start a neighborhood watch. A round
of drug arrests, neighborhood events and community cooperation reclaimed
Hilltop from the crime.

But some of the drug dealers moved back as the years passed, and interest
in the community watch dwindled. Police focused on other trouble spots.

By 1998, the crime was back, stronger than ever.

In 1999, the Kings Mountain City Council voted to annex 2,316 acres,
including Hilltop. The city's police began patrolling the neighborhood
after annexation.

Last year's back-to-back killings slammed home the fact something needed to
be done.

Last January, a shootout at the Boom Boom Room club on Hillway Drive left
21-year-old Demyris Roberts dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Police
arrested 22-year-old Sterling Roseboro, who pleaded guilty in connection
with the slaying.

Police are still investigating the Feb. 12 stabbing death of 22-year-old
Rickie Lee Moore in his house on Hillway Drive. Investigators suspect
Moore's killing was drug-related.

Kings Mountain police began to fight the problems engulfing Hilltop:

Using federal grant money, the department hired two community police
officers to focus on Hilltop and a few other sections of the city including
Grace Street.

Brad Bumgardner and Keith Davis spend up to half their shifts driving
through Hilltop, making traffic stops, speaking to residents and passing
tips to the vice-narcotics unit. "I spend so much time in this area - I
know who lives here and who doesn't," Bumgardner said.

At first, some residents worried about retaliation from drug dealers if
they cooperated with police. But officers got out of their cars to talk to
people and passed out fliers to publicize community meetings they conducted
at the Adams Chapel church. There, officers handed out business cards and
said they wanted to help.

"There was a good showing," said Sanders, the church pastor. "People were
able to voice their concerns."

Now, residents call the police station with tips, and ask for Bumgardner
and Davis by name.

No one in the community has come forward to set up a neighborhood crime
watch, as police had hoped. But, Bumgardner said, many of the longtime
residents already look out for one another.

Last summer, police sponsored a community cleanup and cookout. About 30
residents attended. They carted off mounds of garbage illegally dumped in
Hilltop.

Police targeted those suspected of selling drugs, and many have since moved
out.

Police teamed with Kings Mountain city code enforcement officers to
pressure property owners to clean up. Several agreed, towing away junk
cars, boarding up buildings that drew vagrants and ripping down substandard
houses.

The man who owned the Boom Boom Room hauled away the two adjoining trailers
that made up the nightclub. All that's left is a rickety shed. The house
where Rickie Moore was stabbed to death has a "For Rent" sign on the front
door.

Five homeowners who ignored the city's requests to repair dilapidated
houses had their property condemned, said Code Enforcement Officer Scott
Layton.

The city has torn down one house and has plans to burn down or bulldoze at
least two others. Two more homes may be ripped down if the owners don't
comply, Layton said.

"You just have to be forceful sometimes and get after the property owners,"
Lt. Johnson said. "We told them, 'Either you clean up your property or
we'll do it for you.' And our cleaning won't be with a paint brush and a
broom - it'll be with a wrecking ball."

Kings Mountain police say they plan to keep up the pressure, to keep the
crime from creeping back. They know it's a persistent threat.

Bumgardner recalled how the hourly police patrols prompted one drug dealer
to pack up and move back to Shelby after he told acquaintances the police
were ruining his business. The house stood empty for three weeks - until
another suspected drug dealer moved in.

The Rev. Sanders said the police have "done everything they said they were
gonna do" with one exception: lowering the speed limit on Lake Montonia
Church Road, an entry point to the neighborhood. Some Hilltop residents
worry that a crush of speeders on the stretch might injure a child.

But compared with the scourge of crime, the speed-limit concern is mundane.

"As long as there's some peace and people can sleep at night," Sanders
said, "it's wonderful."