ATTORNEY GENERAL VISITS HIGH POINT

The state's top law enforcement official Wednesday praised High Point
police for an anti-drug initiative they credit with reversing crime trends
in the city's West End neighborhood.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said the strategy behind the
West End Initiative might prove equally successful elsewhere in the state.

"The early results look promising for communities across the state," Cooper
said following a 45-minute briefing at the High Point police station, 1009
Leonard St., in which community residents joined representatives of several
agencies to extol the program's benefits.

Police credit the initiative with lowering violent crime in West End by 33
percent and drug crime by 36 percent during the 250 days following the
starting date on May 18 versus the same period leading up to it.

The average decline in violent crime throughout that period was 51 percent,
High Point police Maj. Marty Sumner said.

High Point Mayor Becky Smothers, Guilford County District Attorney Stuart
Albright and several city council members were also in attendance.

Cooper, who took notes while organizers showed a PowerPoint presentation,
requested the meeting to learn more about what local authorities are
hailing as an innovative approach to crime. He asked several questions and
turned to a group of West End residents for their thoughts about the program.

Margaret Sahnow, the president of West End Ministries, said the effort
helped stoke community pride and that drug dealers, prostitutes and petty
criminals sat up and took notice.

"People in this neighborhood know that we are not giving up," Sahnow said
of her neighbors. "Police have saved our community and we know that."

The attorney general also had a few suggestions of his own to ensure the
continued success of the West End Initiative.

"I think they need to follow the people they brought in to make sure they
don't end up some place else, back dealing drugs," Cooper said.

Saying that only a long-term analysis would tell whether the crime strategy
was "the right thing," Cooper said there were enough short-term gains to
warrant discussions with other departments and communities.

"I look forward to working with (High Point police Chief Jim Fealy) and
working with other police chiefs and sheriffs across North Carolina to see
whether this is something they could pick up on," he said.