NORRIS SEEKS TO STRIKE A DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN TOUGH POLICING AND CITIZEN'S
RIGHTS

Norris advocates aggressive policing for Baltimore

A couple of weeks ago, an article appeared in Perspective under the
headline, "Is O'Malley ignoring the past?" It consisted of an
introduction written by me and excerpts from a report on the urban
riots of the 1960s.

The report was released by the National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders, a bipartisan group created by then-President Lyndon B.
Johnson. The president wanted to know what caused the riots and how to
prevent more from occurring.

A re-examination of the report was timely because Mayor Martin
O'Malley and Baltimore's new police commissioner, Edward T. Norris,
advocate aggressive police tactics to bring down Baltimore's homicide
rate, which has been stuck at more than 300 a year for the last decade.

Back in 1968, the commission concluded that seething social problems
rooted in race and class were responsible for the riots. Virtually
all of the disorders occurred in predominantly black neighborhoods and
many were triggered by incidents involving white police officers.
Consequently, the report warned against aggressive police tactics that
could lead to urban disorders.

Before Norris became Baltimore's top cop, he was a high-ranking
official in the New York Police Department, where he advised
Commissioner Howard Safir on anti-crime strategies.

The NYPD credits its tough, zero-tolerance policing for bringing down
crime. But zero tolerance is also blamed for creating racial unrest
after police killed three unarmed men in 13 months and reports of
police brutality surfaced.

The day after the article appeared, I got an angry phone call from a
reader. She told me that I should have been fired for running it. She
said the article would "only stir up the blacks," who'd read it before
they went to church on Sunday morning and they would come out ready to
riot.

The article also prompted a call from Mayor O'Malley, who reaffirmed
his commitment to bring down the homicide rate. O'Malley said he does
not intend to repeat the mistakes of the past. He said he will "police
the police" if that's what it takes to prevent abuses and urged me to
talk to Norris about his plans to revamp the department.

On Wednesday, I met the top man in blue. He is confident that he can
bring the best part of zero tolerance to Baltimore without causing a
citizen backlash.

"If you look back on every major police scandal, whether it involves
drugs or brutality, the common thread is a lack of supervision -- a
high ranking person was not working," Norris explained. "Last weekend,
there were majors working on the streets of every district in
Baltimore and there was a deputy commissioner on patrol. That's the
key to keeping the officers in line."

Under Norris' crime-fighting plan, district commanders also undergo
closer scrutiny. The commissioner meets regularly with the district
commanders to review crime reports using a high-tech approach. Crimes
in each police district are flashed onto a giant computer screen and
district commanders are questioned about what's happening on their
turf and what they're doing to counter crime.

Norris said this approach holds the district commanders accountable.
It also gives them an overview of what's happening in the entire city
and enables them to share crime-fighting information.

"The purpose of the meetings is to drill down a couple layers and ask
the hard questions of our commanders," Norris said. "We want to know
what happened, what caused the shootings -- is it a drug dispute, is
it a domestic dispute? -- and then get to the root."

So what's different about what Norris is doing here and zero tolerance
in New York?

"The [O'Malley] administration's openness in terms of its relationship
with the media," Norris explained, adding: "And I intend to be very
open with the community."

Earlier this month, the mayor unveiled a blueprint for fighting crime.
It concluded that past policing strategies contributed to violence and
public hostility and suspicion. The surprisingly candid report
included a survey answered by 80 percent of the 3,200-member police
force. More than 80 percent of the responding officers said that their
own disrespect of people "causes unnecessary escalation of force." And
about half said they believed that officers did not have the verbal or
tactical skills to defuse potentially violent situations.

The "pro-active" kind of policing Norris advocates is bound to
increase police-citizen contacts. So, I asked Norris if the officers
would be given more training before his strategy is fully
implemented.

"We can't wait until we train the entire police department because
we'll have another bloody year," Norris explained. "We'll conduct the
operation plan and have simultaneous training to teach officers how to
deal with the public."

Norris conceded that even under the best of circumstances, there is
only so much the police can do in the fight against crime.

"We need help from the community," Norris said. "The people who live
in the neighborhood know who the crooks are, who the drug dealers are;
we need information from the community and to get that, we need them
to trust us.

"And they must remember, every time they see us rousting people on a
corner, it does not mean we are harassing them, we're probably
answering a call. Don't assume that every time we stop somebody on the
street it's for the wrong reason. We don't always get it wrong. The
vast majority of cops do the right thing."

Is it possible to have an aggressive police department that does not
trample citizens' rights? We'll see.

One thing is certain -- the body count will continue to climb if
nothing is done. Violence has become the norm in some city
neighborhoods. And its been that way for more than a generation.

Baltimore's murder rate started to spiral in 1968 when 259 people were
slain -- a 26 percent increase over the 205 slayings recorded in 1967
and more than double the 114 murders posted in 1962.

The sad truth is that O'Malley is addressing a problem that three
mayors before him chose to ignore. The 1968 riot report told us about
the poverty, hopeless and despair confronting many blacks in our
nation's cities. Now, 32-years later we're hoping the police alone can
cure a public health problem -- an epidemic of homicides.