THE LONG HOT SUMMER

Area Police Are Thinking About More Than Sunblock and Bug Spray This
Summer. They're Getting Ready for a Rise in Crime.

Summer means different things to different people. Some Richmonders
have sunshine, swimming pools and vacations on their minds - not
escalating crime.

But law enforcement officials in the city of Richmond, the counties of
Henrico and Chesterfield, and the town of Ashland, know what to expect.

"Statistically, as it gets warmer, the violent crime and the crime on
the streets goes up dramatically," says City Councilman Manoli
Loupassi, who heads the council's public safety committee and was a
city prosecutor for six-and-a-half years. "There are escalations in
the levels of violence over the summer."

So Richmond-area crime-fighters are gearing up for a summer crackdown,
targeting everything from unfastened seat belts to guns and drugs. The
authorities' battle plan runs the gamut this summer.

Richmond

When Richmond City Police Maj. David McCoy says "activity picks up in
the summertime," he's not kidding. City cops are poised to combat both
violent crime and quality-of-life issues in the city this summer, he
says.

Since before Memorial Day, the Richmond Police have been partnered
with the Virginia State Police to get illegal firearms off the street.
Expect more cops to be patrolling the city streets through Labor Day -
12 more state troopers, to be exact - as an "illegal firearms
reduction initiative" is started, in which the cops charge those
possessing illegal guns with federal crimes and there will be quicker
prosecution.

On Independence Day it doesn't matter whether the gun you're carrying
is legal. If you fire it, you're in trouble. More city cops will be
working that night to make sure people don't fire their guns in the
air during all the patriotic celebrating. The Fourth of July
Initiative, as McCoy calls it, will "strategically place police
officers" across the city to respond quickly to gunshots, possibly
seize the weapons, charge the patriotic perpetrator with a crime and
then send the heat-packer to court. "That would kind of ruin their
Fourth of July," McCoy predicts.

Throughout the summer, the city police will "continue targeting street
crime," McCoy says. With plain-clothes police operations looking for
drug sellers and buyers, McCoy says, "there's a good likelihood of
arrest if you conduct yourself in that lifestyle."

Also following the Richmond Police theme of zero tolerance this
summer, McCoy says that blasting car stereos and causing other types
of "noise complaints" will result in "aggressive efforts" by the city
cops to charge summer fun gatherings with noise violations. "We're
reducing the officers' discretion on this issue," McCoy says. "We're
going to take a more aggressive approach this summer."

More uniformed officers will be patrolling the Richmond parks, McCoy
says, because they're expecting "enhanced crime" in places like Pony
Pasture, Bryan Park and Byrd Park. Summer fun there will have to make
due without drinking and noise - or other vices. McCoy says city
police hope to nail some "vice offenses" for illegal behavior in
parks, especially sexually deviant acts.

Also expect to see plenty of police protection in neighborhoods, McCoy
says, along with trained citizens. There will be "a much better
Neighborhood Watch program of citizen soldiers," he says, along with
mobile command units - "a large command-post precinct on wheels in
neighborhoods to increase visibility." And motorcycle units will work
to nail those who drive under the influence, he says.

Loupassi hopes that fighting such "nuisance crimes" as noise, graffiti
and property damage will not eclipse the focus on bigger solutions for
citizens' problems. Loupassi says Richmonders should expect a
three-pronged strategy for protection this summer: reducing the number
of illegal guns, putting more police on the street and providing more
witness protection.

"The things that we're concerned with are drugs, violent crimes and
weapons," Loupassi says. "We had a man washing his car," Loupassi
recounted of a recent shooting, "and he's the victim of a violent,
nasty, awful gun homicide. A man ought to be able to wash his car
without that happening.

"Those [nuisance crimes] are things that we could deal with," he says.
"But if people on the streets are being shot while they're washing
their cars, then we've got bigger problems."

So Loupassi hopes Richmonders will see more police officers on the
streets. "One of our biggest complaints from citizens is a need for
increasing our police presence," he says. "That is probably the
quintessential issue. It's our responsibility as the council to get
the police the resources necessary to get their job done."

Loupassi points to the budget approved by council May 27 as an
example, saying it makes major strides toward curbing criminal
activity. It provides money to fund all 656 Richmond police officers,
he says, makes up for the state cuts to Project Exile and triples a
line item - from $50,000 to $150,000 over the next two years - for
witness protection. That increase is "going to make a huge
difference," he says, "because we're going to be able to solve some of
these awful, nasty crimes."

Henrico

In Henrico County, the general theme for summer initiatives and
programs is to keep kids on the right path, says Henrico County Police
Lt. H.I. Cardounel. "The younger you're able to catch folks and work
with them," he says, "the more attentive they'll be when they grow up
and come of age."

The county's three-prong strategy includes targeting teenage drunk
driving, enforcing seat-belt wearing and catching drivers who run red
lights.

"We received some federal grants to focus our efforts on youth drunk
driving," Cardounel says. "It seems only logical for teenage drunk
driving to be the focus." So during prom season and graduation time,
Cardounel says the cops will run DUI checkpoints throughout the county.

Because sober drivers can be bad too, Henrico will implement a "safety
belt awareness campaign" this summer. The federal program, Click It or
Ticket, for which commercials already are running, is big on the East
Coast, Cardounel says. Not wearing a seat belt is a "secondary
offense," because the cops aren't allowed to pull over a driver for
that alone. But the Click It or Ticket program makes it mandatory for
a traffic ticket to be written for any driver not wearing a seat belt
once pulled over.

The county also will use federal funding to "make drivers more
conscientious of running through red lights," Cardounel says. Henrico
police will coordinate their own kinds of stakeouts called Operation
Red Light. Unmarked cars will wait by heavily congested intersections
like Pump Road and Broad Street to spot offenders, then radio other
cops waiting farther down the road to stop the driver and write a
traffic summons. The stakeouts will help to stop possible traffic
fatalities, Cardounel says, because there's a big connection between
red-light running and accidents.

As part of their mission to reach the county's children, a lot of
police will make their presence known in Henrico residents' daily
summer life, too, through "community service initiatives" or
"nonenforcement programs." As the weather heats up, more cops will be
bicycling through neighborhood streets. Summer-school students can
expect to see police officers teaching classes such as drivers' ed.
The police department will host a youth baseball camp, called Strike
Out Substance Abuse (SOSA), aimed at fighting drug abuse. And the Sex
Offenders Support Initiative (SOSI) will have state probation officers
making personal visits to sex offenders at their homes.

Henrico residents partying this summer will have to keep a check on
that stereo volume, too. "It's pretty much a given" that the cops will
be clamping down on noise violations, Cardounel says. "In the
summertime, it's more prevalent," to have loud house parties and car
speakers. "There is a noise ordinance," he says. "It's not just an
annoyance. It's a hazard." And in cars, he says, loud music can make
it more difficult for other cars on the road to hear emergency
vehicles approaching. The punishment? A traffic summons, Cardounel
says, but not necessarily a required court appearance.

Chesterfield

While drugs, guns and larceny plague Chesterfield County, too, the
possibility of more road fatalities is showing up sharpest on the
cops' radar screen for this summer. Only the safest drivers seem to be
welcome in Chesterfield County in the coming months. "We will be going
after aggressive drivers, drunk drivers and people who don't wear
their seat belt," says Chesterfield County police Lt. Brian C. Smith,
commander of the special operations unit. While his command
encompasses things like street drugs and a K-9 unit, he says traffic
enforcement - much of which, like his county's neighbor across the
James River, Henrico County, is aimed at youths - will be his primary
concern this summer. "That would be my theme," Smith says.

In 2001, Chesterfield County saw 14 traffic fatalities. Last year,
that number jumped to 39, which included a wreck on Interstate 95 that
killed five people. "We increased by 25 in one year, which is just
incredible," Smith says. "That's why we put so much emphasis on our
traffic unit."

Thinking ahead to his plan for the summer, Smith says, "We go wherever
our problems have been. Last year they were fatalities." So teams of
two to four officers will focus on big intersections - the No. 1
busiest intersection, Smith says, is Courthouse Road and Hull Street.
"We have several (DUI) checkpoints planned that we will be working on
during the summer," he says. "And the goal of those checkpoints will
be to target drunk drivers."

Detective units will be supplemented in Chesterfield County this
summer, too, Smith says. "We actually have more officers on the street
during the summer." Three motorcycle units will join Smith - five more
officers will join the current group of six bikers. And 20
school-resource officers from middle schools and high schools in the
county will be assigned back to the different bureaus to assist the
shifts and the divisions.

Along with the additional detectives and the focus on aggressive
drivers, the 25 additional cops under Smith will have zero tolerance
for juveniles drinking alcohol. "When it comes to juveniles drinking
in the summer," Smith says, "we always have zero tolerance."

In additional to underage drinking, Smith says Chesterfield County
will focus on enforcing seat-belt laws. "We cannot stop you for going
down the street without a seat belt on," he says. But if a driver has
already been pulled over and the cop spots the driver without a seat
belt, Smith assures drivers that they will be ticketed. "We have zero
tolerance for that. We are enforcing that strictly, especially with
aggressive things like running a red light."

While there aren't any new laws that will be enforced, and Smith says
he "can't really point out any pattern" in the county's fatalities, he
is confident that Chesterfield will work to defeat the rising fatality
rates through harsher enforcement of driving laws and stricter
supervision of drivers on Chesterfield's roads.

Ashland

In Ashland, police expect summer incidents not so much dependent on
age as location. Motel rooms and Wal-Mart are on the minds of Ashland
cops. "We've got a major Wal-Mart opening in June, and we don't really
know the impact that that will have on our community," says Ashland
Chief of Police Frederic Pleasants Jr. "We're a small Police
Department. We don't know the intensity of calls that will be coming
in from the store." So Pleasants says the new Wal-Mart will be a part
of the police officers' routine beat. And with the Ashland Town
Council authorizing one additional officer to be hired on the force -
the new position was scheduled to take effect June 1, in time for the
new store's opening - the Police Department will have 22 cops this
summer.

Ashland also is cringing at the prospect of more tourist traffic from
Paramount's Kings Dominion. Pleasants says he can't give any specific
numbers as to the amount of tourists expected to be coming to town
this summer, though he says the neighboring city of Doswell, where the
theme park is located, does have two motels. "But that's not enough to
handle" all the overflow traffic, he says.

The summer is "an extremely busy time for the town," Pleasants says.
"We have a thousand motel rooms in Ashland. We obviously increase our
scrutiny and patrols of those motels."

The Ashland Police also are planning for an increase in larcenies, as
more bicycles are ridden - and stolen - and more car windows are left
down during the summer. So the message Pleasants is trying to send to
the citizens of Ashland this summer: "You need to secure your cars and
not leave your property visible."

Ashland's cops aren't just bracing for increased vandalism and larceny
as the temperature rises and the tourists increase. Pleasants says
he's increasing Neighborhood Watches, which he describes as citizen
efforts to actively fight crime in the community. "We have seven very
active neighborhood associations," he says. "Neighborhood Watch is a
great organization."

Last year's sniper appearance in Ashland affected the Police
Department and put Pleasants in the national spotlight. However,
Pleasants says that hasn't had a significant effect on the focus of
his local law-enforcement methods for the summer. The sniper terror
lasted five days, he says, and the hysteria ended when the alleged
perpetrator was apprehended. "I can't honestly say that there's any
kind of backlash," he says.

Nevertheless, he says, "One way or another, we know we're vulnerable.
We have to be a little more vigilant."