DRUG DEALERS WORKING FOR CITY

HIGH POINT -- Want to put a drug dealer out of business for good? Put
him on the city payroll.

That's one of the newest ideas city officials are trying as part of a
larger strategy to clean up one of High Point's worst drug markets.

The city is in the process of hiring four young men targeted by police
for suspected drug dealing in the West End neighborhood. Instead of
throwing them in jail, law enforcement and city officials hope giving
the men jobs will help them leave behind their criminal past.

"I know people in town will say 'What in the world is he doing?' "
said City Manager Strib Boynton. "And there's risk."

But it's a calculated risk, he added.

Hiring the offenders is one of many unique actions the city is taking
to crack down on the open-air drug markets and associated shootings,
robberies and prostitution in the West End community. City officials
are also working with landlords of known crack houses to clean up
their properties as well as assigning more officers to patrol the
area, among other initiatives.

Though it's nothing new for cities to offer employment for troubled
kids, High Point is breaking new ground in its approach, said David
Kennedy, a senior researcher at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government and adviser to High Point police on the West End strategy.

The city is not just encouraging youth to apply but making it
personal, singling out offenders from a specific neighborhood, telling
them they have to quit dealing drugs and encouraging them to take a
specific job, he said.

"I think it's unprecedented to do it this way," he said.

Greensboro doesn't have a similar program but police officials there
are studying High Point's drug crackdown initiative. Winston-Salem
police are also interested.

Last month, the four slated for city employment were part of a group
of nine low-level drug dealers operating in the neighborhood who
attended a meeting at the police department. They were given a choice:
stop your illegal activity and we'll help you with education, jobs and
other community resources. Continue, and you'll go to prison.

Police had developed enough information to charge all of them but
promised to hold off if they changed their lives.

Six of the nine dealers called a resource coordinator for help finding
a job the next day. Of those, four stuck with the program and are in
the process of being hired by the city.

Those four, which include three men between the ages of 18 and 20 and
one male juvenile, are expected to work in the Parks and Recreation
Department on seasonal work crews that maintain ball fields and park
grounds, among other duties, said John McCrary, the city's human
resources director. The temporary jobs are often filled by college and
high school students in the summer and pay between $6 and $7 an hour,
he said.

The city did not have to create new positions to hire the four,
McCrary said, but they were given special consideration. The city
would normally pass over applicants with criminal records, much like
those in the private sector, he said.

But Boynton said he felt the city had to step up and give the
offenders a chance if it was asking private companies to do the same.
He's hoping the program's successes will encourage companies to hire
more people with troubled pasts trying to change their lives.

"It can't just be a city program," he said.

Boynton said the four will be closely monitored. They must remain free
of drugs and alcohol and undergo drug-abuse counseling. They cannot
possess drugs or weapons.

They will have to show up to work on time and perform like any other
employee.

McCrary said they won't be allowed to drive city vehicles initially.

City officials will evaluate the men's progress each week to determine
whether to keep them employed, he said. It's possible that they could
work themselves into a permanent, full-time city position, but city
officials have made no promises, Boynton said.

"I'm confidant it will, for many of them, give them an opportunity for
a new life," he said.

Kennedy, the Harvard researcher, said that people typically stop
offending after they become involved in a network of friends and
mentors that are engaged in positive activities instead of crime. The
four new city employees should find themselves in a similar situation,
developing new friends and new ways to feel respect and
accomplishment.

"You are exposed to very different norms," he said. "And that's as big
a deal as the job is."