IF WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT NEIGHBORHOOD POLICING, CHECK OUT THIS ALLEY

Sixteen years ago this past May, then Nashville Mayor Bill Boner declared a
war on drugs here, even leading a charge on the most obvious battlefield -
Batavia Alley.

''We are going to show the people of this community that they've been
putting up with drugs long enough,'' Boner said May 10, 1988, as he kicked
off his effort to clean up the drug-ridden alley, which was located off 21st
Avenue and ran alongside Herman and Batavia streets.

''In three to four weeks, you won't recognize Batavia Alley.''

I thought about Batavia Alley Monday night as I attended a meeting at
Swett's Restaurant on Clifton Avenue. If you had been there with me, you
would surely understand why.

Looking out the window of a room where meetings are often held, I couldn't
help but notice a group of people going back and forth in an alley behind a
convenience store across the street.

Every now and then, I could see people light up: Whether it was cigarettes
or something else, I am not sure. But why would people have to go down an
alley and into some adjoining bushes to light a cigarette? The alley runs
off Clifton Avenue between 28th Avenue North and Lena Street. And it's not
that far from where Batavia Alley was located.

''What I have noticed since Police Chief (Ronal) Serpas first took office
here is that in the beginning, there was heightened police presence in the
area, which seemed to slow down the drug activity,'' David Swett Jr., who
operates Swett's Restaurant along with his father, told me over the
telephone yesterday morning.

''But over the last month, that presence seems to have slowed down, and the
activity across the street has picked up. In that area behind the store
across the street, there seems to be a lot of drug sales taking place.

''I don't think you have to necessarily make a lot of arrests, but the
presence of the police tends to keep a lot of people from hanging out over
there. I like Chief Serpas, and when he first came here, he seemed like a go
get 'em, and I hope that continues.''

Back in late May, Serpas said he wanted his officers to learn the various
neighborhoods here so they would know who belongs and who doesn't.

''And the reason is very clear,'' the chief said on a Fisk University radio
program.

''We know that most of the people we arrest for holding our families and
friends hostage behind their doors don't live in the neighborhoods where
they supply drugs.

''They don't live in the neighborhoods where they drive fast up and down the
street.

''They don't live in the neighborhood where they got guns on them because
their friends are slinging dope.''

I'm sure the chief was right in his assessment of those people he was
talking about. But who are these people going back and forth in the alley
and bushes across the street from Swett's Restaurant?

What are they lighting up over there?

Are they leaving behind dangerous items, such as needles?

David Swett Jr. is right, too, when he says more of a presence by police
would probably decrease the activity taking place in the alley across from
his restaurant. But police can't do it alone.

Back when Bill Boner declared a war on drugs here and went to clean up
Batavia Alley, he took with him representatives from the Police Department,
Metro Health, Codes Administration, Metro Public Works, Nashville Electric
Service and the Metro Development and Housing Agency.

Perhaps it's time for Mayor Bill Purcell to declare a public war on drugs in
Nashville and clean up, and not just the alley across from Swett's.

Drug activity can lead to gun violence and homicides. And if we continue to
have any of that, we continue to have too much of it.

Nashville is indeed a great place to live, but when you see what I saw
Monday night you can't help but wonder why this is allowed to take place.

Maybe officials don't know about it, but they should. Maybe they don't have
the money to fight such wars, but they have to find a way to get rid of the
problem. It's that ugly.

Citizens in areas where such activity is taking place need to speak up as
well. As Chief Serpas said in May, ''The No. 1 crime prevention tool in
America is the front porch.''

He's right. This city belongs to its citizens, and we have to stand up for
what's right and not let a segment of society that means no good take over
any part of it.

If you doubt what I'm saying, go take a look for yourself. I am sure you
will come away just as angry and disgusted as I was Monday night if you
really care about Nashville and its well-being.

Then put yourself in the place of the Swett family. Doesn't such activity
drive away business? And would something like this be allowed on West End
Avenue or in Green Hills?

Surely not.

Dwight Lewis is a columnist, regional editor and member of the editorial
board for The Tennessean.