INC NEWS - Police, Duke Power discuss tennis shoe-gang connection (Herald-Sun)

[Caleb Southern]

Police, Duke Power discuss tennis shoe-gang connection 

BY MARK SCHULTZ : The Herald-Sun
mschultz at heraldsun.com
Jan 21, 2005 : 8:59 pm ET 

DURHAM -- Durham residents who want to see sneakers removed from overhead
power lines should call Durham One Call, 560-1200, a city official said
Friday. 

Representatives from Duke Power and the Durham Police Department discussed
the sneakers during a regularly scheduled meeting. 

The shoes can sometimes signal gangs marking their territory, and the
police, power company and the city already work together to remove them,
officials said. 

"How often I don't know," said Jay Reinstein, an assistant to the city
manager. "With [gang] graffiti for the most part it's removed in 24 hours." 

Scott Gardner, Duke Power's district manager, attended Friday's meeting. He
didn't want to discuss how often Duke workers remove sneakers from lines but
said the company and police work well together, and "we feel confident we
are on top of this." 

Gardner said he didn't think that sneakers looped over lines were always
actual gang symbols. 

"I see tennis shoes everywhere," he said. "I can tell you we remove them
when we're called." 

But resident Josh Parker, who contacted Duke Power about the issue earlier
this month, thinks officials need to take the sneakers down more quickly. He
said sneakers sometimes remain tangled in lines for weeks or longer. 

"I can't tell you how many [community] meetings I go to where they're
talking about gang graffiti and sneakers," said Parker, who ran
unsuccessfully for county commissioner last year. 

"If we're treating graffiti as marking gang territory and they're saying
sneakers are marking gang territory -- whether they always do or not -- we
should be treating them the same way," Parker said. "For God's sake, let's
be proactive for once."