CHIEF SAYS POLICE, FEDS WORK TOGETHER

DURHAM -- Durham police and federal law enforcement agencies are
working together and getting results, despite the impression created
by a recent spike in violent crime, Police Chief Steve Chalmers and a
federal prosecutor said Thursday.

Over the past six months, cities throughout central North Carolina
have seen a sharp rise in the number of armed robberies -- a likely
symptom of the street-corner drug trade, said Rob Lang, an assistant
U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.

But Durham is ahead of the others in working with federal agencies to
break up drug rings, quell the trade in illegal firearms and secure
long prison sentences for lawbreakers, Lang told the City Council.

"Some of the things you're doing here I use in presentations to other
city councils to shame them into doing them, too," Lang said, singling
out the city's efforts to trace guns. "To me as a career prosecutor in
this business for 21 years, many of the fundamental steps at the
baseline are being done here in Durham."

Chalmers said 11 Durham police officers are working directly with
federal agencies like the FBI, and that joint operations with federal
authorities had produced the arrest and conviction of 151 people since
January 2005.

Thursday's briefing came about a month and a half after Councilman
Thomas Stith questioned whether police and city officials are working
aggressively enough in conjunction with the federal government to
quell the recent rise of gun crime.

Statistics from the first quarter of the year showed, among other
things, that aggravated assaults involving guns had jumped by almost
36 percent and robberies involving firearms had risen by 69 percent.

Stith -- a potential mayoral candidate next year -- said in July that
the statistics show Durham's crime-control efforts aren't working as
well as Mayor Bill Bell and other officials would like to the public
to believe.

But Lang said Durham's violent crime statistics had been going in the
right direction until the recent spike, dropping 34 percent since
2000. The current problems also are apparent in Greensboro and
Winston-Salem, he said.

"This year it's not been good, but it hasn't been good anywhere," he
said.

Chalmers added that he's not inclined to make wholesale changes in the
Police Department's approach.

"We are using our resources in a very efficient and effective way," he
said. "I do not believe in changing a horse in midstream unless it's
just broken down. The horse we have is not broken."

The comments from Chalmers and Lang touched off a wide-ranging
discussion about crime-control strategy.

Lang led off by saying prosecutors in the Middle District haven't used
the federal RICO racketeering and corruption statute to try to quell
gangs and drug-distribution networks and are reluctant to start
because U.S. Department of Justice lawyers in Washington keep a tight
rein on such prosecutions.

RICO investigations take years to complete, and Middle District
prosecutors believe they can get quicker results by invoking federal
narcotics and conspiracy statutes, Lang said.

Asked how local crime-control efforts stack up against others in North
Carolina, Lang also said District Attorney Mike Nifong's office
appears understaffed compared to those in other jurisdictions of
similar size.

"They're overwhelmed in the state prosecutor's office here," he
said.

Stith and Councilman Eugene Brown both made it clear they're concerned
about crime among Hispanics. Chalmers responded by saying that one of
the first jobs assigned to a newly hired crime analyst is an effort to
learn how Hispanics figure in the city's crime statistics, both as
perpetrators and victims.

Councilman Howard Clement raised questions about a recent operation in
East Durham mounted by the Durham County Sheriff's Office, saying that
while cooperative efforts are welcome, he's heard complaints about the
effort from rank-and-file members of the Police Department.

Consultation -- and the alleged lack of it -- was the apparent reason.
And Chalmers did not deny that there was unhappiness in his department.

"The sheriff's department, when they go into an area, they consult
with the Police Department?" Clement asked.

"I think that's the way it should be," Chalmers responded.

"That's quite an answer, chief," Clement said. "Is that the way it
is?"

"Not always," the chief said. "With the Durham Police Department, the
buck stops with me, and with the sheriff's department it stops with
Sheriff [Worth] Hill. Any concerns I have, I'll address with Sheriff
Hill. He and I have had some meetings."

Chalmers conceded in response to a series of questions from Stith that
the Police Department could do more to publicize operations like a
recent prostitution bust that closed several brothels in North-East
Central Durham, to send a message to criminals that the city won't put
up with them.

But he said the department many times chooses to keep quiet about
operations to preserve the option of expanding investigations, on its
own or in conjunction with federal authorities. It prefers to keep
information compartmentalized, and is careful about what it shares.

"Even within the Police Department, I don't want them to tell me
everything until it's time," Chalmers said, apparently referring to
the officers who work with federal agencies like the FBI and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.