To many Atlantans it smacked of capricious cronyism when Maynard Jackson
Jr., the city's black mayor, appointed A. Reginald Eaves as
commissioner of public safety in 1974. A blunt-spoken black lawyer
whose chief qualification for the job appeared to be his friendship
with Jackson, a college classmate, Eaves seemed totally unqualified to
command the city's 1,500-man police force, then struggling
ineffectively against a crime surge that had made Atlanta one of the
homicide capitals of the U.S. But today the top cop is being cheered
more than he is being jeered—even by some of his harshest early
critics. Says Hal Gulliver, editorial page editor of the Atlanta
Constitution, which vehemently opposed his appointment: “Eaves must be
doing something right.”Last year violent personal crimes in Atlanta dropped 9.9%. Murders
decreased from 248 to 185, burglaries dropped from 16,802 to 14,501,
and armed robberies fell from 4,357 to 3,887. Overall, reported crime
increased by only 3% in Atlanta last year, compared with an estimated
national average increase of 11%. One big reason: Reg Eaves and his
tough approach to “black on black” crime.In Atlanta, which is 60% black, crime had followed a grimly familiar
pattern. Most violence occurred in largely black areas, where the
city's largely white police force was least effective. Eaves, now 41,
took on his $34,000-a-year job with a simple conviction: “Blacks suffer
the most from crime, and if given a chance to relate to the police,
they will help fight it.”No Excuse. Eaves launched his campaign with characteristic directness:
he demoted more than 100 acting sergeants and other commanders and
installed his own team, promoting more than 30 blacks. He also
increased recruit training from six weeks to 19 weeks, and required all
cops to take “crisis intervention” classes to learn how to deal with
domestic squabbles. Most important, he began spreading what might be
called Eaves' law through black high-crime areas: “No matter how poor
you are, there is no excuse for knocking a lady in the head or stealing
her purse.”In one violent South Side neighborhood, Eaves set up an integrated
“crime control team” that made the cops on the beat responsible for
following a case through, instead of turning it over to a detective.
Local cops were thus forced to develop neighborhood contacts who could
supply information needed to build a successful case. As a result, the
police now regularly get useful tips, and the proportion of crimes
solved has increased from 30% to 56%.Eaves has pushed a number of new tactics, with the help of federal funds
from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. A squad of cops
disguised as tramps and winos was set up to lure muggers, and
high-crime areas were assigned a special force of additional patrolmen.
Says Eaves: “We're trying to become as unpredictable for the criminal
as the criminal is to us.”
