To save gas, police hit the streets on their feet

Departments, quickly outpacing their fuel budgets, find community policing has other benefits, too. By SHAILA DEWAN, New York Times SUWANEE, GA. - People around here are seeing a lot more of officer Robert Stewart. Following strict new orders, he frequently leaves his squad car, hopping out to visit a bartender, then a barber, then a bank teller. She squealed and clapped her hands, demanding to see the latest photograph of his son. As gasoline soars past the $4-a-gallon mark, police chiefs in towns and cities across the country are ordering their officers out of the car and onto their feet in a budgetary scramble. "It's changing the way we police," said Chief Mike Jones of the Suwanee Police Department, who has asked his officers to walk for at least one hour of every shift. "We're going to have to police smarter than we have... [read full story]