LAW ENFORCEMENT : Atlantic City Has Tempting Perks to Lure Police Back to Urban Living : Using a casino fund, it offers nearly interest-free housing, take-home cars.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. —  On the surface, this East Coast gambling resort, which draws millions of visitors a year, might seem to have it all: sea, sand and a castle called Trump. But Atlantic City, with its deeper problems, now is trying to throw money at its police officers just to get them to move back here.

In an unusual gamble over a dilemma faced by many large cities, including Los Angeles, Atlantic City has pooled $5 million from its casino endowment fund to pay for practically no-interest home mortgage loans that the mayor, police chief and casino commission hope will convince the police that living here is worth the price.

The officers would get loans at next to nothing, accelerated monthly payment schedules, even free take-home city cars. And yet, while there have been lots of inquiries since the program was announced earlier this summer, there still are no takers.

In fact, even some of those pitching the plan the hardest--such as the police chief and the head of the police union--admit they have no intention of taking advantage of such a sweetheart deal.

“We’re getting calls now from all around the country from police departments looking at what we’re trying to do here,” boasted Police Chief Nicholas Rifice. But he lives north of the city and his kids are in school there, and he doesn’t plan to move.

“We’re getting a lot of positive feedback from the rank and file. I think they like it,” said the president of the Police Benevolent Assn., Robert Campbell. He also lives outside Atlantic City.

“I’m sure all the loans will be taken,” predicted Sgt. Ernest Jubilee. He is the Police Department’s chief spokesman and, with just a couple of years left before his retirement, he sees no reason to pull up stakes in the comfortable suburb of Pleasantville and move back to Atlantic City.

Rather, the police officials believe that the giveaway better suits young police officers, those who are single or married with only young children, the kind that might be more adaptable to moving.

But therein lies the rub.

Historically, as crime, poverty and urban decay moved into Atlantic City before and after the casinos arrived, rookie officers steadily migrated out of the city. Today, only about 21% of the 400 officers call Atlantic City home.

That figure is comparable to Los Angeles, where only 17% live in the city, according to findings released earlier this year by the American Civil Liberties Union. City Hall officials in Los Angeles have begun weighing similar programs, including rent subsidies and salary incentives.

Under New Jersey law, city officials cannot impose a residency requirement on police officers to force them to live within the city limits. But city officials can require that new officers, when they are hired and join the police academy, live in Atlantic City. So the vast majority of the recruits take apartments in the city during their training and then, once they get their badge, they bolt for the ‘burbs.

“We can’t keep them,” said Campbell. “We can’t make them stay.”

Maybe Nicholas R. Amato can. At least he’s going to try.

Amato is executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority on Atlantic Avenue here. He said he thought up the plan, won support from City Hall and drew up the contributions from the casino reinvestment fund. He brought in the Washington-based Police Foundation to study the situation and now is crossing his fingers that his real estate venture is going to fly.

“There is a perception that Atlantic City is not safe, and having a police officer living on your street helps change that perception,” he said. “We have to make it clean and safe and affordable.”

Of course, Amato isn’t a permanent resident here either, but rather commutes home on weekends to northern New Jersey.

But Mayor James Whalen does live here, and his son, a police officer, lives with him. Although the son has not yet committed, his father is nudging him to sign up and buy his own home in Atlantic City.

“Regardless of how many officers sign up, and I think we’ll fill the initial round of 35 loans, there are other things we are doing to make life attractive here,” the mayor said.

Atlantic City is unique in that it is merely 40 blocks long, with just 35,000 residents, but it swells with more than 30 million tourist visits a year.

Police respond to 300,000 calls each year. Visitors who stop at the first red light off the Atlantic City Expressway see an eerie scene of glitzy high-rise casinos next to the blight of boarded-up downtown buildings. In the fancy hotels, employees warn tourists not to wander off the boardwalk at night.

Aware of the city’s tough image as a crime zone, Chief Rifice has begun a series of efforts to get more desk officers back on the street and to step up community policing programs. He said there have been some gains already in lowering violent crime.

But Amato argues that turning more officers into homeowners is the best community policing program ever.

“I am convinced that crime and cops cannot exist on the same street,” he said. “People aren’t so dumb to hang out and sell dope and rob people in front of a policeman’s house.”

How the so-called 3-2-1 Police Loan Program works:

An officer and his or her family choose a home, then turn for financing to Amato’s casino panel. The commission has earmarked $5 million to cover the first 35 loans. The loan limits would be $120,000, and no down payments are required.

The interest rates are set by three categories depending on the type of neighborhood the officer selects. In the roughest areas, an officer would pay only a $100 application fee and just 1% interest on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. But for every year he or she lives there, a year is lopped off the back of the loan, meaning the officer would own the home free and clear in 15 years.

The loan parameters stay the same for the other neighborhoods too, except that a medium area would be a $200 application fee and 2% interest, while the best area would be a $300 application fee and 3% interest.

The money comes from reimbursements paid back to the commission by three Trump casinos: Trump Castle, Trump Plaza and the Taj Mahal.

The officer would get a free patrol car to take home and use on personal errands too, but the officer must park the car on the street or in his driveway. It must be visible. And he must respond to any nearby disturbances he hears on the car radio.

When the program was announced this summer, a flurry of police officers arrived at the commission’s headquarters downtown, just a couple of blocks from the famed boardwalk.

Sgt. Jubilee said one officer told colleagues he was returning to Atlantic City, then changed his mind and built a pool in his back yard in the suburbs. Another officer has said he may apply for a loan, but he already lives in the city with his parents. And a husband and wife who are both officers also are considering the program, but they also already live in the city as renters.

While that kind of interest is promising, Hubert Williams, director of the Police Foundation, said it still misses the goal of getting more officers back in the city. It was Williams who studied the Atlantic City police residency patterns and helped shape the program with Amato.

“This is one of the more advanced thinking projects in police work in the country,” he said. “Whenever you set up a situation where police are working and living with the public in a positive way, it reduces fear and enhances the reputation of the police department.”