I came from the West Coast to the Baltimore Police Department in late 1993. In addition to taking charge of a major East Coast urban law enforcement agency, I adopted an historic East Coast city as my home.

Prior to my appointment as Police Commissioner, I spent many hours in discussion with elected officials of Baltimore, business leaders and community residents. The issues of these discussions were somewhat predictable. I of course was asked about my law enforcement philosophy, career, and vision for Baltimore. Three issues, however, emerged time and again wherever I went and with whomever I spoke. The first was my concept of community-oriented policing and its implementation and implications for Baltimore. The second was how to redirect a police department perceived as ineffective and perhaps corrupt. Lastly, I heard again and again the devastating effects that illicit drugs have had on this city and the police department's unwillingness or inability to do anything about it.

During my early visits to Baltimore as a candidate for Police Commissioner, I also spent many hours touring the city. From Baltimore's crown jewel Inner Harbor to heavy industrial areas, from neighborhoods of million-dollar homes to neighborhoods of abandoned houses and hope, through Baltimore's many ethnic neighborhoods and into the surrounding suburbs I traveled. I needed to establish a "lay of the land" and form my own impressions. I visited with top commanders of the police department, executives of other city agencies, and rode with police officers working the streets of Baltimore.

When speaking with commanders, I was assured that great progress was being made toward implementing community policing. I was presented statistics reflecting the thousands of arrests for drug violations as a measure of successful drug enforcement, even as crime rates increased. My time with street officers painted a different picture. I found officers who, although enthused, knew of community policing only in name. I rode by corners that I knew, the officers knew and the residents knew were open drug markets.

Citizens told me that corruption within the department must be endemic. What other explanation could explain street drug sales occurring under the noses of police officers? Over and over I was told by law-abiding residents that they are willing to help the police, but were left wondering if we were unable, unwilling or afraid to attack the drug problem.

I found Baltimore to fit a pattern of other older major cities. There is little argument that many of our urban centers are struggling to survive, both economically and socially. And, there is little argument that the disparity between the socially advantaged and socially disadvantaged is becoming even more pronounced. In urban centers such as Baltimore, this has been dramatically evidenced by the flight of the middle class from cities to suburbs.

We have historically viewed the demographics of our society in the shape of a pyramid. At its base is the general population. The pyramid rises evenly and ever more narrowly as increases in social and economic wealth affect a smaller portion of the population. The peak is reached only by a small number of economic elite.

As recently as the past decade we have seen a fundamental and alarming change in the urban pyramidal society. As many of the middle class have moved from our cities, a void has been created. Through corporate down-sizing, many manufacturing jobs, especially union jobs, have been eliminated. Instead of a pyramid, the shape has changed to that of an hourglass. We have in our cities, I believe, a disproportionately large class of advantaged over a small middle class, under which is a large group of disadvantaged. Those at the top of the hour glass have little interaction with those at the bottom. Such disparity makes an urban center ripe for feelings of hopelessness and despair. For a police executive, the lower portion of the hour glass is fertile territory for crime and lawlessness.

In January 1994, I was appointed by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke as Police Commissioner and inherited it's 2,900 member police force. My mission was clear. In the face of the city's existing crime problems and ever-growing fear of crime, Baltimore was a city that needed to be retaken by honest, honorable and dedicated police, citizens and community leaders. And I knew then, as I know now, that illicit drugs were responsible for a pervasive sense of desperateness all over the city. From the beginning, I've told the men and women of my department that we've got to take back the streets, block by block, if we're lucky. If not, we'll do it house by house.

Of one thing I was certain, no singular program or stand-alone set of programs would impact upon the drug trade and it's attendant criminality and social despair. I believe that we can only improve our cities through a mobilization of government and citizens geared toward a holistic approach to combat drugs, and it's associated criminality.

My assessment of the police department and its relationship to the Baltimore community led me to several conclusions.

The department appeared to enjoy broad-based, but eroding public support. A great deal of time and effort had been expended in the development of police-community relations programs. Each of the nine police districts was involved in a local community relations council with a headquarters-based division solely devoted to enhancing the police-community cooperative image.

The department enjoyed a generally strong image of integrity and ethics in most of the city. In historically drug-infested areas, the sense of integrity was not as strong. Internally, I found the department was justifiably proud of its integrity.

The department suffered from a multi-layered, bureaucratic and inefficient command structure. I found little genuine vision. Though looking toward the future, the department seemed cemented in traditional ways of doing business.

Baltimore was committed to move a department with strong traditions and a long proud history toward community policing. After much work, study, and first steps, the department's efforts were still unfocused and tentative. Even with tentative steps in the right direction, Baltimore was coming off a record year for homicides and violent crime.

Clearly, Baltimore and its police department needed focus. The department needed to win, through action, the confidence of its community. The community needed to experience results by working in partnership with the police department and having a voice in departmental priorities. And clearly, drugs were so entwined with Baltimore's rising crime, rising violence, rising despair and middle class and business flight, that I and the department needed to take a leadership role for all of city government.

I am absolutely committed to community policing. It is the only method to achieve the broad-based approach to taking back our cities-from the devastation of drugs.

Developing and defining our community policing philosophy became the first order of business. There has never been a standard definition for community-policing. Nationwide, police departments from the smallest rural township to the largest city have attempted to define community policing consistent with their own interpretations, needs, goals, objectives and problems.

In Baltimore, we have embraced the clear, straightforward definition of community policing first promulgated by Lee Brown. Our four-part community policing philosophy requires that we and law-abiding citizens work together to:
•    Arrest Offenders
•    Prevent Crime
•    Solve Ongoing Problems
•    Improve the Quality of Life

Quality of life is at the very foundation of our mission, and illicit drugs are at the very foundation of Baltimore's quality of life concerns.

An important component of our philosophy is the recognition that we cannot and do not stand City of Baltimore's total service delivery system. We realize that we are more deeply enmeshed in the fabric of the community than any other city service. Our goal of improving the quality of life in the community compels us to take the lead as facilitators and bring to bear all city services available to work with communities to solve community identified problems.

Every member of the police department received, and continues to receive, focused training regarding our community policing philosophy and blueprint for change. To accomplish our task, a number of organizational changes and personnel redeployments were immediately required. The command bureaucracy was flattened to improve lines of communication, both down and up, and accountabilities. District commanders were freed from headquarters. They were given the authority and accountability to look at their districts strategically and take action on their own initiative without having to first go through "Downtown."

Our citizens knew, our elected officials knew, and we knew that our immediate and primary focus must be on drug abuse and violent crime directly associated with the drug trade. We approached the drug trade with the attitude that it is a desperate business, populated by desperate people who will go to desperate ends.

Nearly 10 percent of Baltimore's population — 45,000 citizens — are addicted to drugs. This addiction drives up the crime rate, clogs the court system, and overloads our detention facilities. Open-air drug markets hold hostage many of our communities, destroying the very fabric of the quality of life of its residents. No area of our cities, no matter how rich or poor, is immune from drug-related crime. Addicts need money to purchase drugs, and most of this money is derived from robberies or thefts. The result is multi-millions of dollars annually in economic loss to our citizens and communities. Violent crime, especially homicide, is most feared in our communities and is a common occurrence in the drug culture.

The cycle of drug abuse is predictable. Evidence of the cycle can be seen in cities all over America. Law-abiding citizens begin to leave neighborhoods to escape the frustration of nuisance crimes associated with drugs. The more residents who leave, the more prime the area becomes for more drugs and crime. If the problems of drug sales are not "fixed" early on, the neighborhood falters.

James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, authors of a March 1992 article in The Atlantic entitled, "The Police and Neighborhood Safety," describe this correlation in terms of a broken window theory. If kids throw a rock at a window of an empty building, and you don't fix the window, pretty soon they'll throw another rock and soon all the windows will be broken. A broken window, or any other unaddressed nuisance crime, is a sign that no one cares, which breeds further disorder and more serious offenses. Sadly, we saw evidence of once fine neighborhoods falling into the cycle of grime and crime throughout Baltimore City.

Our community policing plan was set in place. Drugs, violence and grime were the priorities of our city. And, we were set on course to assume the lead in taking back our city with the help of our citizens and governmental infrastructure.

We began in an area of our city identified as having the highest incidence of violent crime, especially shootings, drugs and grime. It was a place that the dealers had literally taken over with impunity. It was a place where residents stayed indoors and slept in bathtubs to protect themselves from near daily gun battles between dealers. Known as Greenmount Avenue, we took an "alley fight" approach to this area. If you're trapped in a alley by four guys and have to fight your way out, you have two choices. You can start by fighting the little guy and work your way up. But, you'll need to take on the big guy eventually, and, by that time you'll be exhausted. On the other hand, if you take on the big guy first, you send a clear message of strength and the others will fall more easily.

We went after Greenmount Avenue with hundreds of officers because it was the toughest open-air drug market in the city, and everyone knew it — the police, the community and the dealers. The drug dealers had their day for too long, and we needed to let them know that this police department has the interest, the ability and the courage to take the community back. Our first day there, we cleaned out 46 major drug distributors and other offenders.

Our raid sweeps were the first important steps to taking back Greenmount Avenue. On the heels of that initiative, we applied a "same place/same time" strategy to achieve lasting change. Following the police department's drug sweep, other city agencies became involved, focusing multiple resources on Greenmount in order to enhance the community's quality-of-life. The day after the initial sweep, the Department of Public Works removed 60 tons of trash from the community and, within the next two weeks, another 140 tons. Simultaneously, the Department of Housing inspected all vacant buildings and re-boarded windows wherever necessary. Vacant properties on two blocks of Greenmount Avenue were so substandard, filled with discarded furniture, needles and rats, that the entire blocks were leveled within days. Many other city agencies, including the Health Department, the Department of Recreation and Parks, and Animal Control, contributed to our "same place/same time" effort on Greenmount Avenue.

The Greenmount initiative is the model of how we planned to take back the city, one block at a time.

Today, city agencies are still working together in Baltimore's neighborhoods to fulfill Mayor Schmoke's vision of community-oriented government. Block by block, it's the Police Department's job to take on the toughest opponent first: crime on the streets. Only then are we able to address the other problems that weaken our neighborhoods. Focusing services in a collaborative way not only involves government services, but also non-profit agencies, churches, schools and, most importantly, citizens. Individual action is critical to strengthening and stabilizing Baltimore's neighborhoods.

Our sweep operations have been replicated in dozens of other areas in Baltimore. For the most part we have held the territory that we, along with other city agencies, have taken back. The communities have been strengthened and residents have been given the opportunity to re-establish their neighborhoods. When drug dealers have tried to come back, we've taken quick action. We are demonstrating that we are able, willing and unafraid to confront the dealers head-on and to address the other problems that weaken our neighborhoods.

In the past, too much of our officers' time has been spent making low-level drug arrests. Every drug arrest involved officers in a four- to five-hour booking process, which resulted in few meaningful convictions and a negligible impact on street violence. An officer on the street is more effective in maintaining order and denying the opportunity for violence than an officer spending half of his/ her shift or more in a booking facility. We have de-emphasized numerical headcounts, which makes common addicts fair game in the bean counting wars of statistical data collection and drug problem justification. Street addicts with small amounts of narcotics are no longer an enforcement priority. Instead, priority is given to middle and upper level drug dealers and their organizations who easily account for 40 percent of our street shootings and over 50 percent of our homicides.

Our willingness to take a leadership role in the transformation of our neighborhoods by taking back streets block by block, beginning if necessary with overpowering drug sweeps, clearly focuses our four-point community policing blueprint. We have entered neighborhoods en masse to arrest violators. We remained to prevent crime and, if necessary, arrest additional violators. We have joined with residents in secured areas to work on problems from nuisance crime to grime to resolving neighborhood disputes. We have, we believe, improved the quality of life in these formerly drug infested areas. A recent poll showed that 56 percent_pf citizens who live in Baltimore think that the police department is doing an "excellent" or "very good" job. A sharp increase compared to years past.

The overall objective of the Baltimore Police Department is to reduce the fear of crime and the incidence of crime. During early 1996 we developed five key strategies for the department. These strategies are the next evolutionary step toward improved quality of life through our conjoined community policing and drug enforcement objectives.

We must, and will, increase the number of officers in direct crime-fighting duties. We have accomplished this through the reassignment of sworn officers from administrative and support positions in Headquarters and in our districts to street and investigative positions ... where they belong! No corner can be kept clear of drug dealers from behind a desk. No drug dealer can be investigated by someone pinning crime maps. No neighborhood drug problem can be solved without face-to-face contact with officers and supervisors who are there to do something about it. We have literally looked at every sworn position in our agency and asked a simple question, "How does this position directly contribute to fighting crime?" My position is clear, if it doesn't, it will be either redirected or eliminated. Maximizing our presence on the street will deter drug dealers and their organizations. Maxideter drug dealers and their organizations. Maximizing our presence will give officers the time to work proactively with communities. Our community policing tenet is to prevent crime.

We must, and we will, vigorously combat gun-related crime on multiple fronts, primarily through focusing patrol priorities, expanding investigations and increasing gun seizures. Street addicts with small amounts of narcotics are not our enforcement priority. Instead, we have expanded our investigations to identify and eliminate drug distribution organizations, both large and small. Too many of our citizens have fallen victim to gun violence. Too frequently problem-solving within the drug community is resolved at the barrel of a gun. We cannot continue to tolerate illegal firearms on our streets. Our Violent Crime Task Force has been expanded reorganized to investigate every non-fatal street shooting with the same intensity and resources as a homicide investigation. The Violent Crime Task Force carries our necessary "alley fight" into our most violent drug market areas. Our community policing tenet is to arrest violators.

We must, and we will, retake our public places from drug dealers. Generally, when we think of crime, an individual comes to mind. An entire neighborhood, however, can be a victim. When drug dealers gain a toehold in public places, addicts abound. The public space is soon surrendered to prostitution, loitering, littering and vandalism. The cumulative result is a neighborhood of decreased property values, a diminished quality of life and pockets of abandonment. To maintain order and safety in Baltimore's public places, parks, green ways and commercial areas that are central to our city's well-being, we have created a Street Crimes Unit. Using nontraditional investigative and operational techniques, this unit places a priority on crimes against neighborhoods overwhelmed by open-air drug markets. Our community-policing tenet is to arrest offenders and prevent crime.

We must and we will gain territory block by block with law-abiding citizens. Our district commanders have real authority and support to strategically direct their resources, identifying strong blocks and to use these blocks to "convert" adjacent blocks. Concerned citizens, on an informal basis, have always been able to influence fellow neighbors to maintain their homes, alleys and streets as well as cooperate with police to prevent and solve crimes. Our task is to provide every neighborhood and block in Baltimore with a step by step blueprint to organize. With the help of strong block leaders, united neighborhoods can keep drugs and crime away. Neighbors must understand that their block is their responsibility. Drug dealers look for areas of decay where they know the residents are fragmented and uncaring. A block's appearance must send a message to everyone that its residents care. Broken windows, graffiti, and litter are not okay. To this end we support the efforts of caring individuals and recruit others through a pro-active Block Representative program. We are teaching volunteer Block Representatives how to organize, identify problems, and solve these problems with police and other city agencies. No police department can ever have enough officers to do the job alone. Our goal is to build a cadre of thousands of dedicated Block Representatives who are well-prepared to work with their district officers, keep their neighborhood strong, and send the message that they do not tolerate drugs, crime or grime on their block. Our community policing tenet is to solve problems and improve the quality of life.

We must, and we have made the Police Activities League (PAL) a part of the social fabric for Baltimore's youngsters. We are investing in Baltimore's future by bringing police officers together with the city's youth for nonadversarial positive interactions. In the natural and enjoyable context of sports and other recreational and educational activities, officers work to provide a good influence in the lives of young people. The trust and respect fostered between police officers and the youth of our community will pay an ongoing dividend by reducing juvenile crime and drug involvement over time.

The PAL Program is the spotlight of our long-range prevention initiatives. It is a platform for reaching our endangered youth and providing alternatives to the temptation of the drug culture. PAL Centers are safe havens for those of our youth who want to escape the tragedy of violent crime. I believe that our city's young people deserve a chance to succeed. It is our obligation to help them escape the trappings of neighborhoods taken over by drug dealers and their organizations. After all, they are our future. Our community-policing tenet is to prevent crime and improve the quality of life.

Drug policies must also reach beyond the confines of structured law enforcement goals, objectives, strategies and plans. We are willing to test new ideas, philosophies and cooperative ventures. These include public and system support for such things as the drug court philosophy of offender treatment, rehabilitation and drug prevention education. We support the Baltimore City Department of Public Health's needle exchange program and the use of a unique mailbox disposal system for used and discarded syringes to help prevent the spread of HIV.

The final, and perhaps most critical component of implementing a community-based drug enforcement policy is the selection of police officers now and in the future.

Our commitment to be the spearhead agency of community service and change in Baltimore requires that we seek, hire and employ young men and women who believe that a calling to law enforcement is a calling to serve the needs of the community. Law enforcement must seek, therefore, officers who come to the profession in the spirit of service, not the spirit of adventure.

I believe in a new way of thinking for the recruitment of young police professionals. We must adopt a new value system for our new officers. We must seek police officers whose measure of personal success and satisfaction comes from the part they play in establishing, or reestablishing, safe, clean and livable neighborhoods. We must seek officers who have the intellectual and emotional maturity to place the interests of the community above personal interest.

In Baltimore, we have coupled a philosophy of hiring in the spirit of service with our community-policing philosophy. We have done this because we are convinced that the long-term benefits for our city through community policing can only be realized by hiring and nurturing service oriented police personnel.

If we are to break the cycle of fear and violence associated with drugs in our community, law enforcement must adopt a leadership philosophy which embraces and mobilizes every person in government, business, schools and neighborhoods. Every policy procedure and program must answer the fundamental question of how it directly improves the quality of life in the community.

Collective involvement must begin on an individual basis. A few years ago, someone intrigued me with "The ten most important two letter words in the English language." These ten words often ring in my ears as I face the daily task of addressing crime in my city. "If it is to be, it is up to me." If each of us takes the problem of crime as our individual responsibility, together we will take back our cities. But someone must get it started. If it is to be, it is up to me. And you. •

Thomas C. Frazier is the police commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department. CommissionerFrazier is the winner of DPF's 1996 H.B. Spear Award for Achievement in the Field of Control and Enforcement. For more information on their Community Policing Program contact: Baltimore Police Department, 601 E. Fayette St., Baltimore, MD 21202.