POLICE RETOOL FOR CRIME

When police Officer Patrick Berg patrolled the Massey Hill neighborhood, he
drove by drug dealers on street corners almost every day. There was little
he could do about it. Berg couldn't just roll up and check their pockets;
he needed to catch them dealing. But as a patrol officer, he had other
responsibilities.

"You start to see something develop, and there's a call for a barking dog
complaint," he said.

Eventually, a neighbor would call about the drug dealing and Berg would
return to the corner. If he had time, he would sit in his car and watch.
But the radio almost always called him to another problem, and the cycle
would start all over.

Police say Berg's is a familiar -- and frustrating -- story. As patrol
officers, they know the neighborhoods, the problems and the criminals. But
they don't have the time to stay with a problem.

"All you're doing is filling out reports," said Lt. Richard Porter.
Detectives -- who do have the time, but aren't on the streets -- eventually
investigate the crimes, but by the time the paperwork reaches their desks,
dealers might have moved on.

"The ability to move quickly is very important because when you don't, they
may move or stop or the person sees that the department is slow to respond
and they lose confidence in the police," said Capt. Brad Chandler, who
commands the Cross Creek police district.

Three months ago, Police Chief Tom McCarthy created the Special Problems
Unit. He hopes it will help fill the gap between patrol officers with too
little time and detectives who aren't out patrolling.

The unit, which is made up of Berg and nine other officers, along with four
supervisors, operates independently and handles things ranging from
speeding in school zones to street-level drug dealing.

"If you've got a complaint, we'll check it out," said Porter, who heads the
team that works in the Cross Creek area. Every day, Porter reads through a
basket full of leads and tips passed on from patrol officers or city
residents. He pulls out the leads his officers will investigate and
dispatches them to stakeouts, drug buys or checkpoints. Porter also talks
with people at Community Watch meetings, listening to their fears and
letting them know what his team is doing.

Similar units exist in Dur-ham and in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where McCarthy
worked. "This is something that is really, really necessary," McCarthy
said. "I was surprised we didn't have one when I got here."

McCarthy said he won't let crime statistics determine the effectiveness of
the Special Problems Unit. How residents feel about their neighborhoods
matters more. "Part of our responsibility is to reduce the fear of crime,"
he said. "When we go to a Community Watch meeting and the people are eager
to work with us because they see the police reacting, then we know."

Police say the unit has been successful in the early going. In its first 40
days of work, the unit recovered nearly $16,000 in stolen goods and made
231 felony arrests, including 146 for drugs, and 302 misdemeanor arrests,
including 123 for drugs. It has confiscated 8,500 grams of drugs and
$50,000 in cash.

A little more than a week ago, officers raided a house in the LaGrange
subdivision that was reportedly the source of drugs for many Westover High
School students. Police arrested three men and seized about 2 pounds of
marijuana and three guns.

Not everything has gone smoothly for the unit, however. On March 20,
Special Problems Unit officers Kemberle Braden and Ron Campbell were met
with gunfire while serving a search warrant at a Bonnie Doone home. When
Braden and Campbell entered the home, bullets were flying through the
walls. Braden was hit in the abdomen and arm, and Campbell caught a
ricochet in the leg. Campbell was treated and is back at work; Braden is
still recovering.

Police said the type of work the Special Problems Unit is doing isn't more
dangerous than the calls patrol officers answer. Still, it's dangerous,
especially when officers enter the homes of suspected drug dealers.

"Any time you serve a warrant for arrest on drugs, it's dangerous,"
McCarthy said. "This is a dangerous business, and the officers that did
that search are among the best."

Quick impact

It did not take the new unit long to make its presence felt. On just its
second day of work in late January, Chandler got a phone tip about a drug
house on Partners Way off Morganton Road in western Fayetteville. That
night, officers raided the house, confiscating $20,000 and a small amount
of marijuana.

"We just knocked on the door," Porter said.

Sometimes, that's all it takes. Porter calls it a "knock and talk." Patrol
officers don't have time to do it, and narcotics investigators are too busy
handling bigger drug trafficking cases. So, officers say, small-time
dealing often slips through the cracks.

For example, in January narcotics investigators got a tip about a shipment
of 60 pounds of marijuana to an apartment at Morganton Arms. The apartment
complex, off Morganton Road, is near an elementary school. Two weeks after
the tip was relayed to police, nothing had been done. Then the Special
Problems Unit stepped in, making a raid and confiscating 16 pounds of
marijuana as well as some heroin and cocaine, Porter said.

Today, when people call in, Chandler will forward the tips to Porter.
Porter chooses when and where to send the unit's officers. He has five
officers and two supervisors at his disposal, as does Capt. Tom Bergamine,
who commands the city's Campbellton district. On a normal day, each team
can work on two or three projects.

"Every day, our basket is full," Porter said. "We follow up on everything."

Officers recently assisted the U.S. Marshals Service in searching for a man
wanted in Virginia on a firearms charge. They interviewed people the man
had stayed with and talked to his family. When they learned the man had
gone back to Virginia, they patrolled areas near Old Bunce and Hope Mills
roads.

On Sandalwood Drive off Hope Mills Road, an officer stopped a man for
driving without using a seat belt. Officers said they could smell marijuana
on the driver. A search of his pockets uncovered cocaine and marijuana,
they said. Police charged him with possession of cocaine and marijuana with
intent to sell and using his white Oldsmobile to keep and sell the drugs.

Repeat problems

The Cross Creek district that Chandler's officers patrol includes the
retail stores and restaurants along Skibo and McPherson Church roads as
well as many neighborhoods and apartment complexes in the western half of
the city.

Police say that one complex, Cambridge Arms, has been a regular source of
calls. The Special Problems Unit has made cleaning it up a project.

The complex off McPherson Church Road includes 87 buildings and 694
apartment units, making it the city's biggest.

"The majority of people who live in Cambridge Arms are decent people who
want a good place to live," Chandler said. "There's just that small
criminal element, and they bring in other criminals."

Those criminals include drug dealers, thieves and vandals. At night, the
complex's main drive resembles a highway, with people speeding through,
residents say.

Loud music blares from windows day and night, sometimes until 3 a.m. Inside
some of the apartments, low-level drug dealers sell to their neighbors or
people who drive into the complex. Gunshots are not unusual.

Dale Blanchard, a 21-year-old who has lived in the complex for about a
year, said the problems have gotten worse since he moved in. Two of his
neighbors' apartments have been broken into. A friend's car has been
vandalized. He has stayed because the rent is affordable and the apartment
is blocks away from his job on McPherson Church Road. But he plans to move.

His girlfriend, Michelle Culbreth, won't do the laundry at night because
she is afraid to walk in the complex alone. "People give me the creeps
here," she said.

Since January 2001, police have counted 56 apartment break-ins and 17 car
break-ins at Cambridge Arms. Last year, an arsonist broke into several
apartments, stealing and setting fires. In November, police arrested Henry
Marcus Thompson and charged him with several arsons and burglaries. He
didn't live at the complex, but his mother did. In March, police charged a
resident in the death of his girlfriend's 5-month-old daughter.

"It was just terrible," Chandler said. "When we started this, we found that
Cambridge Arms had a very high number of people that were wanted by our
department."

The Special Problems Unit, with help from patrol officers, has set up
nighttime checkpoints two and three times a week at the complex entrances.
At one recent checkpoint, police confiscated 200 grams of marijuana and a
stolen 9 mm handgun from a man. They also issued 19 traffic citations.

The unit's officers helped detectives solve a string of car break-ins along
nearby McPherson Church Road. The officers searched an apartment in
Cambridge Arms and found purses, cell phones and stolen goods. They charged
the occupant with 30 break-ins.

The Special Problems Unit is doing more in Cambridge Arms than arresting
people. The unit has worked with management to start a Community Watch
group. Since taking over Cambridge Arms in May, Southwood Realty has raised
the average rent by about $100, which has weeded out some problem
residents. The money is helping pay for $1 million in improvements,
including a club room, better lighting, new vinyl siding, paved sidewalks
and stronger doors. "A lot of the break-ins were just people kicking in the
door," Chandler said.

Sherry Odom, manager of the complex, said she welcomes the increased police
presence. "I still don't think there's a lot of crime here," Odom said.
"It's just three times as big as any other complex in the city."

Residents are eager to attend Community Watch meetings, which will begin
when construction on the club room is complete, Odom said.

Residents have taken notice of the increased police presence. Culbreth said
one night she saw about nine police cars parked outside an apartment. But
the cars did not make her feel safe. "It makes me afraid. It makes me want
to know what's going on," said Culbreth, who is 21.

Blanchard said he thinks the police are making a difference, but he will
continue to keep his car stereo inside his apartment until he can buy a car
alarm.

"Even though the roadblocks bother me, at least I know they are giving it a
shot," he said. "Whatever they are doing, they need to stick to it."

Successes elsewhere

Teams similar to the Special Problems Unit have had success in other
communities for years.

In Durham, the unit is called the Community Activation Team. It is made up
of about 40 officers working in five districts. "It's a lot like
firefighting. You get a fire here, you put it out," said Durham Sgt. Kevin
Cates. "That's what we do."

The program in Durham has been in place for about 10 years. Officers there
say it has played a part in an overall decrease in crime in the city.
Violent crime and overall crime have both declined since 1997, according to
the city's Web site. The crime rate has fallen 13 percent in the past two
years.

Fayetteville police hope their program will do the same thing. But like
Durham police, local officers say the Special Problems Unit is only a piece
of the puzzle in reducing crime.

The unit's officers work independently of other divisions, conducting their
own interviews and drawing up their own search warrants. But the Special
Problems Unit is not looked at as an elite team, police said.

"A lot of times when you create a special unit, there's a lot of
animosity," Porter said. "But it's not like that."

Instead, patrol officers and members of the unit have come to rely on each
other. The road officers provide the unit with background information on
neighborhoods and suspects, and the Special Problems Unit invests the time
to investigate the problems.

"We're not here to replace the patrol officers," said Lt. Bobby Chapman,
who heads the Special Problems Unit in the Campbellton district. "We're
here to complement them."

In Chapman's district, which includes downtown, a tip in January led the
unit's officers to a house in the Haymount area. In addition to marijuana
and thousands of dollars in cash, police confiscated two shotguns and seven
handguns, two of which they said had been stolen from law enforcement
agencies outside Cumberland County. The operation took about four hours.

"The narcotics task force would have eventually got to it, but it wouldn't
be the top of their priority," Chapman said.

In February, Chapman's team received a tip about beer cans piling up in a
back yard off Murchison Road. Unit members raided the house and found a
makeshift bar with several cases of beer, gallons of moonshine and about a
dozen liquor bottles.

The unit is investigating a string of break-ins off Bragg Boulevard.

"This group has the opportunity to work on things that might not be put on
anybody's list," Chapman said. "But they need to get done."

Untraditional outlook

About 30 officers competed for 10 spots in the unit, which are split among
the two teams, one in each police district. Capts. Chandler and Bergamine
and supervisors Porter and Chapman looked at such things as the number of
arrests the candidates made and their willingness to look for untraditional
solutions.

"We wanted police officers who knew the streets," Porter said. "Officers
who weren't afraid to get out of the car and talk to people."

The team supervisors say the unit's members all bring something to their
teams. Officer Mary Bueno, the only woman member, has an extensive
knowledge of traffic enforcement, which helps officers properly stop
suspicious cars.

Braden and Campbell, the officers shot while serving the warrant in Bonnie
Doone, are former narcotics investigators who know the city's drug trade.

Officers Warren Hargis and DeAngelo Andrews have experience tracking down
fugitives. And Officer Ryan Skewes joined with the highest number of
arrests in the department last year: 700.

"When you tap on everyone's strengths, you have a well-oiled machine,"
Chapman said.

About a week ago, officers went to the Fairlane Acres mobile home park off
Santa Fe Drive to serve a search warrant. The neighborhood was familiar. In
the two weeks before, police had served three search warrants on one home
for drugs. The front and back doors of the home still had holes in them
from the search.

The 44-year-old man who lives in the trailer admitted he uses drug and
sells them occasionally. His neighbors have complained, and with help from
the Special Problems Unit, police got him evicted. He said he's moving out
of Cumberland County.

"I'm getting out of here," he said. "Y'all bothering me too much."

Officers on the team are glad to hear it. They are the Special Problems
Unit, and they see it as another problem solved.