SOME QUESTION EFFECTIVENESS OF SUBSTATION

Charles Herbst and Ike Hammonds are on a mission -- and after last week some wonder if it is succeeding.

Police officers Herbst and Hammonds staff the city's only police substation. Located in the 600 block of Good Hope Street, its presence in the community is fairly new, having opened officially in March. But its effectiveness is being questioned by some area residents after a crowd disturbance Friday morning that caused injuries to six police officers and resulted in eight arrests for assault.

Vera Sterling, who lives in the 300 block of South Middle Street, said the substation has only aggravated the crime problems it was supposed to solve.

"To put it here signifies that the police are going against blacks, not simply drugs," said Sterling, who hosts an annual block party called "Stop the Violence."

To avoid the appearance of racial targeting, Sterling said the first substation should have been placed on Broadway near Capaha Park.

"They should have gone to the most drug-intense area first," she said.

The police have gone to where residents wanted them, Hammonds said.

"We need the community to understand: You called us here, so don't turn against us when we do what you called us to do."

The altercation Friday, which police report involved a crowd of 150, was going to happen eventually, Hammonds said.

"Criminals are going to behave like criminals," he said. "You can't expect anything different."

The substation is an extension of the community policing program that Hammonds and Herbst have led since former police Chief Howard Boyd Jr. asked them to participate in 1994, Herbst said.

The goal of community policing is not to just log arrests, Hammonds said, but to solve problems.

"Instead of just arresting, we go and try and find out why kids are hanging out at particular intersections and not two blocks down," he said.

Since Herbst and Hammonds live and grew up in the area they patrol, residents willingly come to them with problems. Thirty to 40 calls each day are directed specifically to the two officers, Herbst said.

"I've been working this neighborhood since 1994," he said. "This substation just gives me a place to hang my hat."

Although the two officers are the only police working day-to-day from the substation, others stop in to file reports or to get bicycle neighborhood patrols. The two officers who handle animal and trash complaints also work from the substation, Herbst said.

Regardless of the substation's four-block distance from police headquarters, Hammonds said it was needed.

"At headquarters, we're busting at the seams," he said. "Closets have been converted into office space."

The substation has improved the appearance in front of Meyer Supply Co., said Chuck Meyer.

"We used to spend a half hour every morning picking up trash and sweeping in front of the store," said Meyer, who owns several buildings along Good Hope Street. I picked up about four leftover bags of chips and a bottle. That's nothing."

Philip Davis, who owns a day care in the 300 block of South Middle Street, is glad that the substation is around the corner. However, he hasn't noticed it changing neighborhood life.

People still park their cars in front of his building before going to the corner to buy drugs, Davis said.

"I wish the substation was right down there," he said, pointing to the corner of Good Hope and South Middle.

Peggy Winchester, who lives in the 200 block of Good Hope, said she is not as afraid to drive home at night now.

"For a while it was an open-air drug market, but the substation has alleviated some of that," said Winchester, who has lived in the area over eight years.

Sterling, who originally supported the substation, believes drug dealers and others will use it as an excuse for more conflicts.

Hammonds was surprised that no one has retaliated against the substation after Friday's melee.

"I expected our windows to be broken out," he said. "This means that the people causing the problems were arrested, and the others know they're in trouble and don't need any more."

He said it also might mean that because six police officers were injured, the troublemakers figure they won the battle.

But Hammonds aims to win the war. "Even those who patronize Good Hope for drugs know that we're here to stay," he said.