The crime wave in Wilmington, Del., was just starting to heat up when Jim Nolan first got behind the wheel of a police cruiser there in the early 1980s.

Today, locals says the city of 72,000 in the shadow of Philadelphia is safer than it was thenbut not by much. More than 1,000 violent crimes there were reported to the FBI in 2003. Seven murders were notched that same year.

Police cars and uniformed officers are more visible than ever, but what do residents really think about it?

Thats what Nolan, who is now a professor in sociology and anthropology at West Virginia University, wanted to find out. And two weeks ago, he led of group of sociology students from WVU and Duquesne University to Wilmington, his hometown, to do just that.

Sixteen students spent four days knocking on doors in the Wilmington neighborhoods of East Side, Hilltop, Little Italy and Forty Acres as part of the research.

The idea, said Nolan, who spent 13 years as a beat cop and detective patrolling those same streets, was to simply see how Wilmingtons citizens view crimethen how they deal with it when it actually happens.

A lot of people are fearful and a lot of people are resentful,Dr. Nolan said,but thats just a reaction to the crime. Deep down, they love their homes and their town. And research shows that when you increase citizen involvement in the community, you reduce the crime rate.

Residents responded to a four-page survey created by Nolan, his WVU colleague Dr. Ronald Althouse and Dr. Norman Conti of Duquesne. Questions ranged fromDo you feel better or worse when the police show up?toAre you afraid something bad will happen to you or your family if you talk to the police?

Vigilance, not the violent kind practiced by Charles Bronson in theurban nightmaremovies of the 1970s, also goes a long way, Nolan said.

The ideal community is interdependent where people look out for one another,he said.

Nolan was known for his work in community policing in Wilmington and across Delaware. Hes the former director of the statesWeed and Seed Initiative,whichweeded outdrug dealers whileseedingneighborhoods with ideas and measures to build stronger communities. Hes also working with the state of Florida on a crime reporting project in Tampa.

He tracked hate crimes as an FBI investigator before joining academia.

Results of the Wilmington study will be released in October, he said.