| Show 1:nslcwmrn6----- --- — ------------dgs----- -- do they ever work! Chief Reuben Greenberg's methods are not what you'd expect-bu- t ZOILTIT C ((:D ch A 'C'ore& it —I '' I I tellinOgBLEMle 11E1 ' - wrrH i L--- about Reuben Greenberg - i 4 :t i er ar r' t t Rs r'it R t 1 ' I ''' I -- ' 4 '''a ' i:'' ' police chief - le the :— ' I ' f rtit both block amJewish '''lh V - 1 - ' pp: - 0 1I II 11 t ' 4 Vt t - Uit f Ii n - b i 1 0 - l' i t and molest- children" says "The peo- pie in public housing now are poor and black but they have the same values as crime is way down" who are convicted of major crimes are subject to eviction As a result says Greenberg "some people with criminal records actually stop corn-Ple- b mitting crimes" Greenberg's unorthodox methods extend to other areas If for example one of his officers makes a gambling arrest at a motel the department confiscates all the furniture in the motel room as evidence The room is out of business— and the motel owners out of revenue— I until the ease comes to trial sometimes months later A i car to suspect who uses his solicit a prostitute sees the ' carimpoundedas evidence A convenience store that sells beer to minors has all its beer carted off to a police property room "In Charles- ton we have some motel owners asking people for two residents "to am -- DeeP South who Is is he proudly 'bilt - s In wt""1"1 the only - t ) 7:7 I - ')i 4 I he' bels:nn: 4 p chwieGreelteu t -- is figuring out where to start Some of his admirers like to begin with the story of the time he ran his police car into a civilian automobile while responding to a call— and wrote himself a $60 ticket Others like to say that he is probably the only forteacher at the Unimer political-scienc- e who rides Carolina North of versity around in a patrol car at night or that he is most likely the only police chief in the Deep South who is as he proudly points out both black and Jewish or that he is almost certainly the only person anywhere who has served as head of the police departments of two major cities at the same time My own favorite Reuben Greenberg story happened one morning in his office as executive director of public safety in Mobile Ala when three veteran beat patrolman waited in wearing those heavy black oxfords regulation military-typ-e that cops all over America wear—and walked out with bemused looks on their faces and track shoes in their hands "Those military shoes look nice" Greenberg told the men "But you can't run in them And the crooks sure don't wear them With running shoes at least you have a chance of catching them" Reuben Greenberg at 47 is not a traditional cop—and in 1982 Charleston SC was looking for someone to make waves The classic old port city had the same problems many other American cities have—violent crime was up especially in the housing projects Drugs were Invading the society And the air of civility was being frayed at the margins by crimes like street-cornprostitution and sales of liquor to minors To turn its law enforcement around the city hired Greenberg—who had been a policeman in Oregon the undersheriff in San Francisco and a police chief in Florida—as its new police chief term During Greenberg's eight-yethe crime rate has tumbled and the streets have become safe enough to walk at night "Crime in the housing projects is way down" Greenberg boasts "People in public housing today make up 8 percent of the population in Charleston—and hi ------ ---" 'p xou said ' yr don't like the way we're doing things irp major credit cards and a driver's license before they'll rent a room" Green- berg chuckles "They learn quickly" Like everything else about his career Reuben Green berg's path to police work was unorthodox He grew up in Houston the son of an agent for a black insur- 9 ance company(He gets his ' last name from a Ukrainian ' in unigrantgrandfathet)"Peo- pie think I had two strikes against me being both black and Jewish" he reflects "But! never saw it that way In my experience anybody who was going to hate me because I was black was going to hate me because I was Jewish anyway" He is a man of remarkable dence but he still remembers the sting of some of the prejudice he encountered in childhood 'My father was a leader in the NAACP" he says 'He was outspoken I remember one local politician said of him 'He demonstrates the evil of interracial marriage for he combines all the vices of the Negro with the cunning of the Jew' That kind of thing was said" Become a cop change they account for 29 percent of the crime Charleston's public housing is some of the safest in the country" Greenberg says that what he has accomplished in Charleston is not a miracle—just the result of some unconventional thinking and a willingness to try new ideas "Arrest is simply not going to be the solution" he says "If arrest were the solution there wouldn't be any prostitutes or crack dealers anywhere in the country What you have to do is destroy the environment in which crime takes place" Destroying the environment for crime has taken some novel---eve- n comic— forms Greenberg assigned uniformed officers to stand next to drug dealers on the streets "These guys all have four or five cases against them already" he says "If you arrest them again they'll be back B the system in a few hours You can't pat them down because you don't have probable cause But nobody's going to buy from them with a police offi- cer standing right there" 11111111 Greenberg estimates that it takes about two weeks of such attention—usually about eight hours a day on the big- business weekends—to drive a drug deal- er out of business help lower crime in housing proj- ects Greenberg persuaded city officials to screen apartment applicants for crim- inal convictions By turning down any- one who has been convicted of a major crime within five years Greenberg changed the composition of the project populations "We have no obligation to provide a place to live to people who are going to rape and murder and rob 00 did " - self-confi- continued MICHAEL RYAN -- PAGE 12 SEPTEMBER 2 1990 PARADE MAGAZINE |
