CRACKDOWN ON SMALL CRIME AIMS TO MAKE NORFOLK SAFER

NORFOLK -- The man was 20 yards from home and down the street from a
restaurant with a public bathroom.

Yet he relieved himself against someone else's house, in broad daylight,
while the owner was at work. A police officer saw him, waited until he
finished and charged him with urinating in public.

Prosecutor Tanya Bullock handled the case as if the man had relieved
himself on her own home. She argued for the maximum penalty and got it -- a
$500 fine.

Bullock is one of four assistant commonwealth's attorneys assigned to
pursue "quality of life" crimes in a broad section of Norfolk as part of
the Project Safe Neighborhood Team.

The team, established in September, targets behavior such as urinating in
public -- UIP, for short -- trespassing, shoplifting and possessing
marijuana. The theory behind it resembles the one former Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani used to combat crime in New York City: Crack down on lesser
offenses, and more serious crimes will decrease.

A photo taped to Bullock's office door reminds her every day of her success
in fighting for neighborhoods. It shows her behind her desk, smiling, with
a caption written in bold, black ink: "I got $500 for UIP."

Federal and city money pays for the program.

Before September, prosecutors rarely followed misdemeanor cases in General
District Court. Now, the four lawyers -- Bullock, Laurel Uhlar, Aneka
Williams and Sam Abed -- prosecute misdemeanor crimes committed in a
wedge-shaped swath of the city.

The section generally encompasses the 23504 ZIP code and runs from the
commonwealth's attorney's office on City Hall Avenue downtown to the
Virginia Zoo and from just east of MacArthur Center to just west of
Military Circle Mall. The area includes all of the city's public housing
and the Huntersville, Park Place, Berkley and Campostella areas.

Prosecutors picked those areas because a majority of Norfolk's gun-related
crime happened in them between 1999 and 2002.

The team's efforts extend outside the courtroom. The lawyers visit the
neighborhoods to explain their mission. They meet with business owners and
managers to ask about problems. They introduce themselves to school
principals, and they attend neighborhood gatherings.

"We're not just there to prosecute them," Uhlar said. "We're there to try
to make their lives a little easier and get the little bit of people who
are causing the problems for an awful lot of good people."

It might sound silly to aggressively prosecute a man for urinating in
public, Uhlar said, but, if someone urinates "in my yard all the time, on
the side of my house, I'm going to be aggravated."

The crime cost the man $40 an ounce, she joked.

Bullock and Uhlar spent a windy, cold afternoon in April visiting
neighborhoods they recently added to their prosecution area -- Berkley,
Campostella and the Oakleaf Forest public housing area.

Bullock already knew Berkley -- she grew up near Hardy Avenue. Her father
still lives on Craig Street. She felt at home as they stood in front of the
Southside Boy's and Girl's Club. The neighborhood team is her second job as
a lawyer, and she sees it as a great place to gain experience.

"After I went to training and got into the communities, I realized people
care about people kicking over their stuff," she said.

Uhlar became a lawyer because of Atticus Finch, the noble defense attorney
who was brave enough to defend a black man against the false accusations of
a white woman in Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird." She has
worked for the commonwealth's attorney since 1997 and used to try murder
cases. She volunteered for the neighborhood team.

"I think people have a right to live well," Uhlar said. "There's less
pressure than if you lose a homicide case. But we don't like to lose."

In Oakleaf Forest, Uhlar carried a camera to take pictures of the streets,
courtyards and no-trespassing signs they would be talking about later in court.

Quinton Allen, a Norfolk police community resource officer, showed them
around. Residents have complained about car thieves abandoning stolen
vehicles, Allen told them. Some said the thieves used their trash cans to
stash the screwdrivers they used to bypass the cars' starters.

Allen pointed to a wooded area behind a fence at the property line.
Officers lose suspects who jump that fence, he said. Drug dealers know the
ins and outs of the neighborhood and use cell phones to notify people on
back streets that police are on the way.

Evidence of drug use and sales littered the ground.

Allen used his foot to prod a three-inch metal tube -- a crack pipe. He
kicked over a pile of tobacco that he called a "Blunt mound" -- the innards
of a Philly Blunt cigar that had been gutted and filled with marijuana.

Having prosecutors in court on misdemeanor cases from the neighborhood has
helped gain convictions, Allen said, and provides officers with needed backup.

If a defense lawyer calls a witness, he said, an officer can't object on
his own to say, "This person wasn't there." But the prosecutors can. And
because the team members know the community, they can argue for what is
best for the neighborhood.

"Part of our job is to educate judges about why a person deserves the
maximum sentence for a misdemeanor," Bullock said. "People don't see why a
defendant deserves one year in jail just for trespassing."

Banning someone convicted of trespassing from a street or apartment complex
does little if another hangout is a few steps away. So the lawyers ask
judges to ban trespassers from a two-to three-block radius.

Their knowledge also helps defendants. If it's a first offense, the team
members know that. If the person has a family member in the neighborhood
that they need to visit, the lawyers know that, too.

Sgt. David E. Shipley, the supervisor for the Norfolk Police Department's
community resource officer program, said it's too early to know conviction
rates. But he said the effort is working.

Criminals need each element of what Shipley called a crime triangle:
desire, opportunity and ability. The team works to reduce all three.

Beatrice Garvin, who heads the Olde Huntersville Civic League, said
residents have long worked to attract business and foster safe
neighborhoods. She thinks the program has helped.

"We feel like we're being heard and that our concerns are of significant
value," Garvin said. "It's just another tool the community can use to make
it a neighborhood of choice, a neighborhood you will feel comfortable about
raising your child in, having your family visit, conducting economic business."

In court, Bullock is brisk and businesslike.

Last week, she dismissed two cases for lack of evidence. Other defendants
didn't get off so easily.

Police Officer C.E. Lee charged several people with trespassing at an
apartment complex in the 800 block of C Ave. Officers knew drug dealers
used the place for business, Lee said, and two shootings have occurred
there this year. The property owner sent a letter to the police chief
authorizing officers to enforce no-trespassing signs.

One defendant argued that he lives next door and that his children play in
the parking lot.

"Did you see the no-trespassing signs?" Bullock asked.

"Yes."

"You were standing there?"

"Yes."

"No further questions," Bullock said.

The judge ordered the man to work off a $500 fine through community service
and to stay away from the property, except to retrieve his children.

Bullock had fought for one more small victory.