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| FIVE POLICE CHIEFS | |
 August 5, 1999 
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Robert Duffy, let me start with you. And ask you what would be at the top of your list of the things you want to hear the presidential candidates discuss and debate? |
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| Drugs and violence in America | |||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: All right. Ellen Hanson, in Lenexa Kansas, what would be at the top of your list?
TERENCE SMITH: Gregory Cooper, we've heard about drugs, about violence, what would be at the top of your list?
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| Coordinating efforts against crime | |||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: And you'd look to the federal government to provide that kind of coordination? CHIEF GREGORY COOPER: Not the coordination per se, but the support and resources particularly. When I say support, I'm talking about membership of those task forces and also monetary support. And in our particular case, we have several thousand dollars that have been contributed to our task force that has made an extreme difference. So we're working very collectively together, very cooperatively, and we're coordinating our resources and solving crimes that had been unsolved for years before. TERENCE SMITH: Chief Greenberg, what's your perspective from Charleston?
TERENCE SMITH: Chief Pennington in New Orleans, yours is the largest department represented by this group. What would be on your list?
TERENCE SMITH: By COPS you're talking about the federal program of community oriented policing? CHIEF RICHARD PENNINGTON: Absolutely. The COPS office has put additional 100,000 police officers throughout the United States. We've been very -- been the beneficiary of having additional police officers here in New Orleans. We dramatically reduced our crime, violent crime by over 50 percent. And so we have some concerns about the cooperation from the federal government in making sure that we continue to get technology. We were able to get $1 million worth of computers put in our police cars. We were able to get additional training for our officers. And those are the concerns that we have, making sure that we can maintain that momentum to continue throughout not just in New Orleans, but throughout the United States. I think many police departments have benefited from those additional police officers on the street and also the funding from the COPS office. |
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| Federal help in combating crime | |||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: And are you concerned that the federal government is going to, in effect, declare victory and quit? CHIEF RICHARD PENNINGTON: Well, I hope that they will not declare victory. I mean, we still have a long ways to go. We've had some significant decreases here in this community and this state. But clearly we have not won the battle. And I think when you look at other police chiefs throughout the United States, they will probably say the same things. We have all had some significant decreases, but we still have a drug problem in this country. And we still have a violence problem. And we have an educational problem that we need to address. And those are the issues that we're concerned about here in this community.
CHIEF ROBERT DUFFY: I have not specifically heard those issues raised yet. But I think the one point of advice that I would make is that the candidates in both parties should listen very closely to the issues that impact the local levels. And I would agree with my colleagues, we have a variety of issues that face us, and we need a national level of support. And we need to have a program in place that establishes some form of national standards for performance, funding, communication, and all the mechanisms that we need at a local level to impact crime and violence. But they have to listen at the local levels. Just as we as police chiefs go out into our neighborhoods, we listen to our community leaders and our residents because they can drive what we need to do in terms of policy. That is just one small portion of what we have to do on a national level. The answers lie locally, but I think funding and support obviously lies at a much higher national level. TERENCE SMITH: Ellen Hanson, what optimism do you have that you're going to hear some of this debate?
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| Law enforcement as an issue | |||||||||||
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CHIEF GREGORY COOPER: Well, again, go back to the concept of coordination and cooperation with one another. I've had the opportunity to work as an F.B.I. agent for approximately ten-and-a-half years and was a police chief before becoming an F.B.I. agent in a very small town and now a police chief in a medium-sized town. But I've always recognized that we work most effectively when we're working with each other, not in competition with each other and certainly not against each other. And I think typically that's the spirit. The spirit is of cooperation. Yet at times because of the different policies and procedures, the political agendas, et cetera, personalities, all those things affect how effectively we work with each other. And when it comes right down to it, it's the relationship that's established at the local level with the state, the county, as well as the federal. So once those personal relationships are established, we see things really go sailing very smoothly. TERENCE SMITH: Chief Greenberg, you spoke about military capacity and readiness. Was that a reflection of a view that it's been drawn down too much?
TERENCE SMITH: Richard Pennington, what is your reaction when you hear your colleagues talk about these other issues which have focused mostly on law enforcement? What's your view?
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TERENCE
SMITH: Tonight we talk with five police chiefs from around the country.
Joining us are Gregory Cooper of Provo, Utah; Ellen Hanson of Lenexa,
Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri; Richard Pennington of New
Orleans, Louisiana; Robert Duffy of Rochester, New York; and Reuben
Greenberg of Charleston, South Carolina. Welcome to you all. We appreciate
your views on law enforcement issues, but other issues, as well. 
CHIEF
ROBERT DUFFY, Rochester Police Department: If I had to pick one topic
that would be at the top of my list, I would have to focus on the issue
of drugs. Drugs impacts every community across this country, but here
in Rochester, it is at the forefront of a majority of all of our problems
-- crime and quality of life issues -- and I just feel in the last several
years, we have failed nationally and locally with how to deal with drugs.
Enforcement has to be a high priority, but also education, prevention,
and especially treatment has to be given just as high a priority. And
that treatment has to be available for those who cannot normally afford
it. In terms of the actual drug enforcement itself, we also have to
look at a way that we can draft our policies so that asset forfeiture
does not become a business and does not drive our enforcement and our
local and national policies. And my feeling is that if we are going
to be the world's policemen, then I think we have to learn how the police
our local communities first and drugs has to be at the forefront of
what we face across this country.
CHIEF
ELLEN HANSON, Lenexa, Kansas, Police Department: Well, I think one of
the issues that we all have to be concerned about is the issue of violence,
and specifically in light of a lot of what's going on around the country
everywhere gun violence and school violence would have to be at the
top of everyone's list. Even though we read recently about statistics
that say that violence at schools is going down, we have seen from about
1993 that there is a pretty regular cycle that goes a year when we don't
see a lot of that activity. The next year we see a big increase. So
I think we need to be prepared to deal with more of those types of issues.
CHIEF
GREGORY COOPER, Provo Police Department: Well, I certainly concur with
what has been said so far. But I think as we consider each of those
issues, and there are a number of issues out there, that we need to
focus on enhancing our ability to work together. I think one of the
weaknesses that we share within law enforcement with about 17,000 different
law enforcement agencies in the country is our inability at times to
communicate, coordinate and cooperate with each other. I think that
as we work together, we coalesce our resources, our talents, our education.
We find that we work more effectively, more efficiently and they are
much more successful resolving very, very serious issues, particularly
violence and drugs per se. We started a major case task force in Utah
County, for example. We've got about 20 different agencies represented,
both at the local, the state, and the federal level. And as a result
of that, in the last two years, we've seen significant declines in a
number of different criminal areas that were concerning us. And consequently,
we're absolutely convinced that as we work more closely together, we'll
see greater enhancement of our resource, but certainly our ability to
cope with the issues that are out there.
CHIEF
REUBEN GREENBERG, Charleston Police Department: Well, I think there
are really about three issues that are very, very important that I'm
primarily concerned with. One thing I think, and we've seen a lot of
this in the last couple years, I believe that our military is just stretched
too thin. We need to do more with expanding the Navy, the Army, the
Air Force, the Coast Guard, various other kinds of law enforcement agencies
to do the job they have to do around the world. The other thing I'm
very much concerned about, and that is if educational system, particularly
as it relates to inner city youth. We're way behind and it seems that
we're falling further behind. Finally, the terrible situation that occurred
in Atlanta, I think that if there's anything, any benefit to that situation
or something we can learn from it is that we have serious problems with
violence in our country, not just with the Littleton, Colorado's and
the Pearl, Mississippi's, and the Springfield Oregon's with respect
to the youth. This problem extends to all levels in our society, even
to adults. We need to have a comprehensive assessment with what we need
to change and what we need to do with respect to violence throughout
all age groups in our country. 
CHIEF
RICHARD PENNINGTON, New Orleans Police Department: Well, I think here
in New Orleans we really are concerned about the abolishment of the
COPS office I think in the year 2001. 
TERENCE
SMITH: Okay. Chief Duffy in Rochester, I wonder, we now have some ten
contenders for the Republican nomination and two at least for the Democratic
nomination. Are you hearing any of these issues debated in this campaign
so far, the issues you've raised and those your colleagues raise? 
CHIEF
ELLEN HANSON: Well, sometimes it gets difficult to be optimistic in
our business just in general, but I do think that when you hear some
of the issues that my colleagues have spoken about today as far as coordination,
one of the real keys is to try to speak with a united voice. And in
this day and age of technology and information sharing, we try to use
that to our advantage and hopefully we can have an impact if we work
together. I think the one thing that we also have to be aware of is
in this age of technology, that one of the issues we should be concerned
about is the great propensity and opportunity for the criminal use and
misuse and abuse of all those systems. And hopefully some of the big
cases that have come to light nationally will help focus some efforts
at getting control and having someone take responsibility for who is
going to be responsible for managing some of this technology.
TERENCE
SMITH: Chief Cooper, traditionally law enforcement is a local issue
and administered locally. Yet this is of course a presidential campaign.
Where do those two intersect, in your view? 
CHIEF
REUBEN GREENBERG: I think our difficulty is that we have a lot of things
we want to do around the world and a lot of different venues and that
these things for the most part are worthwhile, things that ought to
be done by somebody. The rest of the world doesn't seem to be oriented
in that regard. We are, and I think that's a good thing, but we have
to have the military in sufficient numbers in order to accomplish these
worthwhile goals. 
CHIEF
RICHARD PENNINGTON: Well, I agree with what all my colleagues have stated.
But I'm a member of a the Major City Chief's Association, also the International
Chiefs of Police, and believe me, my colleagues will be focusing on
the next presidential election because we have some concerns that will
impact law enforcement throughout the United States. And we want to
make sure that the candidates hear us loud and clear, because we want
to make a difference. We are here to serve the public and the community.
And we want to make sure those candidates hear our concerns, because
crime is still a problem. We have to look at the next population of
young people, juveniles, which will be a problem in the future. And
we have to start talking about youth focus policing and start focusing
our resources on the youth of tomorrow. And so those are big issues
and concerns that we're going to have to address.