COMMUNITY DRUG INITIATIVE MOVING TO SOUTHSIDE

HIGH POINT -- When Dale Newton moved his congregation to the
Southside neighborhood four years ago he found something amiss.

"People couldn't sit outside," said Newton, pastor of Tabernacle of
Prayer, Praise and Worship, "They were afraid to come out of their
homes because of the crime going on in the street."

The neighborhood could soon find a solution for that problem. The
High Point Police Department has targeted Southside as its next
community for an initiative program designed to clean up street-level
drug dealing and the violent crime accompanies it.

Police spent several months "doing their homework" as Chief Jim Fealy
calls it, on the neighborhood. They built cases against known drug
dealers in the community through informants and the use of undercover
officers buying illegal substances.

The police department has made multiple purchases from about 20 drug
dealers in the area, Maj. Marty Sumner told residents and community
leaders during a High Point Community Against Violence meeting.

Those dealers will find out about the cases against them on June 8,
when police and community leaders bring them in for a frank
discussion about their illegal activities in the neighborhood. Those
facing more serious charges will be prosecuted.

Others will be given a choice: get out of the business or go to prison.

High Point police have similar programs in the West End and Daniel
Brooks neighborhoods.

Fealy said that in the West End community there was an average of one
murder per year before the initiative. But since the initiative two
years ago, there hasn't been a homicide in the neighborhood.

In the first year of the program, the West End Initiative reduced
violent crime by 36 percent and drug crime by 56 percent.

In Daniel Brooks, 12 dealers were given the same choice last spring
to cease dealing or face prosecution, and only two were caught
selling drugs again.

After the intervention, the dealers are given support from community
groups and churches on how to build a life outside of crime. And the
churches and community groups such as Tabernacle of Prayer, Praise
and Worship in Southside, play a role in helping the neighbors be
vigilant about drug dealing in their communities.

Neighborhoods for the initiative are chosen from city crime data,
Fealy said. Looking at the crime maps the city did before the West
End Initiative, Fealy said he thought Southside would be second in
line. But when they re-examined the crime data a year ago, Daniel
Brooks had moved up in priority.

"One of the things with these initiatives, it doesn't just change
crime in the neighborhood," Fealy said. "It changes crime all over the city."

Not only will the neighborhood benefit from the police initiative,
but the city is also planning a economic revitalization for the community.

Community leaders like Newton said Southside is ready for change.

"We're excited and hoping that through this initiative Southside will
be able to regain its neighborhood," Newton said.