DRUG WAR NEEDS FOOT SOLDIERS, POLICE TOLD

LEADERS MEET: A Charleston councilman and neighborhood leaders met with
police Friday, and most said more police foot patrols are needed to
fight drugs and violence.

Wendell Gilliard doesn't want to get another 4 a.m. call from
Charleston Police Chief Reuben Greenberg.

The city councilman got such a call a week ago after a 17-year-old was
found shot dead outside the Gadsden Green housing complex in his
district. Police haven't said that the slaying had anything to do with
drugs. But too many murders and lesser crimes do, Gilliard said.

"In my life, I've lost a lot of friends, close and dear to me, from
drugs," the city councilman said. "We've really got to get serious. If
someone walked up to me and said, 'Are we winning the war on drugs?'
The answer would be no."

Gilliard and neighborhood leaders say they have an answer to the
problem: step up community involvement.

He and several neighborhood representatives in his district met with
police officials Friday to discuss how to fight the drug trade in the
West Side, Gadsden Green, Washington Park and Maryville/Ashleyville
neighborhoods.

Most asked for more foot patrols in their neighborhoods.

"It's the same old, same old," said the Rev. Jeremiah Phillips, who
lives in the peninsula's West Side neighborhood. "If we could have the
foot patrols walk down our area ... I don't see them any more."

Police Lt. Dick Vance said foot patrol officers are in the
neighborhood, but that some have been transferred recently to the East
Side neighborhood.

But the way to get the officers is to ask, he said.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease," Vance said. "If other neighborhood
associations come in here and squeak louder, they'll get the extra
manpower."

Another main topic was communication with police. Phillips said he
would like to be updated frequently by the foot patrols who work in his
neighborhood. They could share information and possibly tips, he said.

Police Lt. Naomi Broughton said the department needs information only
neighborhood leaders and residents can provide.

"We always encourage citizens to come forward. Their ideas might be
better than ours," she said. "We only see a part of it. You might see
more than we see."

Gilliard and others said that many people are afraid to give any
information, particularly when police ask for their names.

But Vance said recent court rulings prevent police from acting on
anonymous tips.

Still, he encouraged residents to come forward when they see something
going on that looks wrong.

That would be one helpful way to intensify the war on drugs, which
Vance said needs to be cranked up.

"It's kind of like when you've got roaches in your house but you're
afraid to use bug spray because you don't want to kill a centipede," he
said. "You see more and more people like this group coming forward
saying, 'Drugs, violent crime, we're not going to take it anymore.'"