Police Corps

Cristin Treaster came to Baltimore to be a doctor. But the Connecticut native and Johns Hopkins University graduate is coming back to be a cop.Michael Jones grew up among drug dealers in inner-city Baltimore and lost a brother to the violent city streets, but he chose college over selling crack cocaine. He too will soon join the force.They are the next generation of Baltimore police officers. Armed with four-year degrees, Treaster and Jones are part of a new federal program called Police Corps that aims to put better-educated police officers on patrol.

Joshlyn Williams doesn't look down as she reaches the top of the 15-foot pole. Shouts of support are coming from her teammates, but the slight 14-year-old is focused inward, eyes briefly closed, as mind and body align in a fierce effort to stand up without falling.Her eyes open. Her knees straighten, then her back -- and she's upright. Just one hurdle left."Jump, Joshlyn. JUMP!" come the shouts from below.A moment of hesitation -- and she does, harness and wire easing her to the ground amid applause and cheers from other city youngsters and the Maryland Police Corps cadets who are their mentors and coaches.

Adam Walinsky's dream to put more and better-educated police officers on America's streets is about to become reality in Baltimore.For nearly 15 years, the New York lawyer with ideals shaped by Robert F. Kennedy and the turmoil of the Vietnam era has relentlessly badgered politicians and pushed his agenda of a police recruiting program patterned after the Peace Corps.Officials plan to formally announce the state-administered Police Corps program next month. Students selected would receive $7,500 a year in federal funds for college tuition in their chosen vocation.

Powder-blue Howard County police uniforms dominated the sixth Maryland Police Corps graduation ceremony yesterday in Linthicum. The Howard County Police Department has attracted 22 of the 138 graduates since the program began in 1997, making it the second-most popular destination for Police Corps graduates. Eighty of the graduates wear Baltimore uniforms. Yesterday's swearing-in of Howard officers sounded like a full choir. When other cadets took their oaths, they had to go solo or in a quartet or quintet.

Baltimore County is pulling out of a highly regarded statewide police training program, saying it is too costly -- even though the officer training is financed mainly with federal money. Since the county joined the Maryland Police Corps in 1997, only two recruits have come from the program to the local police department. This year, county police officials hoped to hire 10 recruits from the Corps' June graduating class, but could find only one candidate who met county standards. "They had trouble with recruiting.

FOUR DECADES ago, when our country's conscience was pricked by pictures of sick and starving children on the other side of the globe, President John F. Kennedy summoned the best of America's youth to the Peace Corps.The volunteers who answered brought to their assigned countries some of the world's most potent and irresistible forces: youth, idealism and energy.But just as important, they brought back to America a new commitment to the world, its challenges, and the hard work and personal sacrifice to solve them.

IF ALL THE PEOPLE Adam Walinsky has buttonholed to discuss his dream of a Police Corps had been present for the program's official kick-off in Maryland last week, the group could have filled a good chunk of the Convention Center.As it was, the gathering at Baltimore City police headquarters packed a sizable room. Ironically, Mr. Walinsky wasn't able to attend, but there was ample testimony to his unswerving devotion to this dream.Two other key players were there -- Jonathan Rubinstein who, along with Mr. Walinsky, came up with an ROTC-like program to rejuvenate police departments, and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who first began working on the Police Corps idea in 1982.

A call is going out to 1996 and 1997 college graduates to police the streets of Baltimore for four years in exchange for a starting salary of $26,388 and up to $30,000 in forgiveness of student loans.Maryland Police Corps, a federal pilot program, is recruiting applicants to its first class of 40 cadets, which will begin training in April at the Maritime Institute of Technology in Linthicum to become Baltimore patrol officers in the fall."We need to get the word out," said Marty Burns, spokeswoman for the governor's Crime Control and Prevention Office.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton expressed alarm yesterday about recent allegations of police brutality and called for increased funding for programs designed to improve community policing, train officers in ethics and restore public trust in law enforcement. "I have been deeply disturbed by recent allegations of serious police misconduct and continued reports of racial profiling that have shaken some communities' faith in the police," Clinton said in his weekly radio address, which was recorded in Washington before he left for a weekend trip to Arkansas.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton plans to venture off the vacation resort of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., today amid growing expectations that he will offer a more contrite apology for misleading the nation about his sexual relationship with a former White House intern.But some congressional Democrats fear the president would only make matters worse -- for himself and for them -- by trying again to explain his conduct to the American people."It's an understatement to say there's a lot of disappointment about how the president has handled it so far," said Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Baltimore-area Democrat.