CITY RENEWS CRACKDOWN ON MINOR OFFENSES

NEW YORK -- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced Tuesday that the Police
Department will "reinvigorate" its enforcement of so-called quality of life
crimes -- meaning police officers will arrest anyone caught engaging in half
a dozen or so minor offenses that have largely been overlooked of late.

"The core of the turnaround of New York City has to do with public safety
and quality of life," Giuliani said at a City Hall news conference. "And we
have to keep reminding ourselves of that. This is a work in progress; it's
not something you ever complete."

It is unclear why Giuliani chose Tuesday to announce what his office billed
as the "Mayor's Quality of Life Initiative 2000" -- which is essentially a
policy that has been in place since the start of his first term six years
ago.

One clue, however, came when Giuliani said his own quality of life rights
had been trampled upon this week when he detected the unmistakable odor of
marijuana after giving a speech to a group of federal law enforcement
officials.

"I turned around and these guys took off," the mayor said of the alleged
offenders.

He added: "You do not get to smoke marijuana in the city of New York."

Another reason may be the spike in complaints made this year to the quality
of life hot line. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 11, 38,167 complaints were received,
up from 18,015 complaints during the same period last year. According to
police officials, one of the reasons for the increase is that in February,
quality of life complaints received by 911 operators were rerouted to the
hot line.

In recent years, Giuliani has ordered the Police Department to issue
citations for offenses such as jaywalking, beating subway fares, sleeping in
public, and -- perhaps most famously -- for cracking down on "squeegee men,"
who wash the car windows of unsuspecting motorists at traffic signals.

The most recent quality of life initiative was launched last Thanksgiving,
when police officers began rousting -- and in some cases arresting --
homeless people. That crackdown will continue, Giuliani said Tuesday.

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,
said that by continuing to arrest homeless people, Giuliani is "addressing
complex social and economic issues in a purely law enforcement way."

"We will closely monitor it and if we find that police violated people's
civil rights, we will take appropriate action," Siegel said.