[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 147 (Wednesday, September 20, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          TRIBUTE TO MANCHESTER, NH POLICE CHIEF PETER FAVREAU

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                      HON. WILLIAM H. ZELIFF, JR.

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 20, 1995
  Mr. ZELIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Manchester, 
NH Police Chief Peter Favreau for his leadership role in putting 
together one of the Nation's most successful antidrug crusades.
  Manchester, a city with a population of 98,000, had the usual 
problems of a city that size. While the overall crime rate in the 
State's largest city has declined in recent years, drug offenses 
increased dramatically when the city became a target for gangs from 
nearby Lowell and Lawrence, MA, who came to Manchester to sell drugs.
  Chief Favreau, ignoring generation-old, traditional police turf 
lines, invited the New Hampshire State Police into the city of 
Manchester for the first time to work hand-in-hand with his officers to 
combat this invasion of drug dealers, gang members, and their related 
crimes. Police Chief Favreau solicited and received a $100,000 grant 
from the State Department of Justice to set up an interagency law 
enforcement task force.
  Manchester police, working together with agents from the Federal Drug 
Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and 
Firearms, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Attorney 
General's Drug Task Force, the State Police Special Investigations 
Unit, and the Sheriff's Department, mobilized to rid the city of these 
drug dealers. The operation was stepped up in June in hopes of 
preventing an escalation of drug wars that had already resulted in the 
shooting deaths of two young men. Mayor Ray Wieczorek joined in by 
forming a task force of city health, building code enforcement, and 
police officials aimed at putting pressure on absentee landlords and 
their crumbling dwellings used for prostitution and drug dealing.
  Chief Favreau, working in conjunction with U.S. Attorney Paul 
Gagnon's office and the unified law enforcement community, mobilized 
all the resources he could and successfully cleaned up the 
neighborhood.
  Leaders of the T.B.O.N. organizations--Take Back Our Neighborhoods--
say that as a result of Chief Favreau's task force's efforts, morale in 
the neighborhood is a lot better. They credit Chief Favreau and his 
leadership for making the area a much better place to live.
  Mr. Speaker, Chief Peter Favreau's distinguished career is a model of 
the best we have in the law enforcement community. I ask my colleagues 
to join with me in saluting Chief Peter Favreau for his leadership in 
the Operation Streetsweeper program and immeasurably improving the 
lives of the people of the Manchester area. Because of Chief Favreau's 
dedication and ability, the citizens of Manchester feel much more 
comfortable and safer moving about the queen city.


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