Over the centuries Charleston, S.C., has been a lucky city. This was especially true on April 12, 1982, when Colonel Reuben Greenberg became its chief of police. He'd already run all sorts of law enforcement agencies in Georgia, California and Florida. Time flies when things go right.

About 20 years ago I asked for some time to talk to him. He'd already been on the CBS show 60 Minutes, Larry King and the McNeil-Lehrer News. He'd become famous and I'd like him to continue to be.

He and I set out one morning, Greenberg driving his police car, to cover the city he'd been hired to protect. First off we saw Charleston police pick up a drunken man in a doorway in a nice neighborhood -- empty wine bottle in his hand. I asked what would become of him. "Well, says Greenberg, he will first go to jail and, when he sobers up, he'll have three choices.

1. Stay in jail until tried.

2. Go into one of our shelters for a short stay and dry out.

3. Get out of town.

If he can't stay sober, He'll have two choices."

Next we looked at the publicly funded housing developments. All were spotless and well groomed, including the enclosed stairwells. In the housing projects, no crime is tolerated, a stark contrast with those in Chicago that I was familiar with (usually teeming with drug traffic, vagrancy, prostitution and terrorism). Greenberg's philosophy is that if the government is the landlord it should be a good one, totally intolerant of law-breaking. Charleston has developed legal short cuts so that eviction can be quick and certain. There are mini-police stations in the largest high rises and all housing is well patrolled. Old-lady tenants sit on their rocking chairs in the most crime-free blocks in Charleston -- the housing developments. They even have porches.

I saw work gangs in the parks, each with two guards with nothing but sidearms. They were cleaning up trash. I asked him what would happen if a prisoner made a break to escape. "It just doesn't happen. These men aren't violent. These are convicted shoplifters, petty thieves, but if one did make a run for it, he'd surely not be shot at."

At noontime a guard asks them where they'd like to lunch and they usually pick a fast-food place, but once in a while a wise guy may mention an elegant, white-tablecloth restaurant and it's not unusual to see a group show up and have an well-behaved luncheon. I don't know whether Charleston's police get a discount, but I have witnessed such incidents and the other customers find it amusing.

Allow me to mention other Greenberg reforms, some of which might be initiated by others in other cities but which I attribute to him:

1. He took Charleston policemen out of shiny black policeman shoes and put running shoes on them.

2. He won't tolerate broken windows. Crime follows them.

3. Same with trash. If a neighborhood is littered, he shames it by picking it up with his prisoners doing the job.

4. Nor is there any toleration of graffiti. When gang members or others spray their incoherent messages on walls, a special squad springs into action.

They strive to give "same day" service, which is to erase it. They possess paint spray guns with which they cover and eliminate the message, if any. Forty years ago a fatuous, white Republican mayor, Lindsay of New York City (long before Giuliani) professed to believe that graffiti was an art form and N.Y. subway cars and stations were made hideous by young people expressing their free thoughts. No, no, no. Trash, litter, broken glass and graffiti presage loose standards, slack-jawed endurance of deviating down to crime, vandalism, violence, even terror. Not in Charleston under Greenberg.

It was during this time that the city of Mobile, Ala., with its own crime problem "borrowed" Reuben Greenberg. Well, he went and helped but returned when he'd accomplished what he meant to accomplish.

When we parted company that memorable day I leaned into the car to thank the Colonel and said, "You know what. You're subversive." He grinned and thanked me! I also said, "If you were up north, the American Civil Liberties Union would work hard to hinder your every step." He said something to the effect that that's why he wasn't "up north."

I may be giving Reuben Greenberg too much credit. I know he rode a tide of improvement in law enforcement and may not have been the initiator of every single one of the s.jpg I've referred to. But he is an outstanding pioneer and forward thinker. And these were his practices. New York City's total evolution for the better owes much to the Charleston leadership and may not even know it.

And I'm personally grateful to this remarkable African-American, Jewish professional man who goes to synagogue on Friday evenings. As a youth of 19, I worked for J. Edgar Hoover, who brought professionalism to law enforcement as head of the FBI way back in the 1920s and '30s. Those were the days of fingerprints. Now we're in the days of DNA and a refusal of law enforcers to deliberately hobble themselves in times of international terrorism and new weapons of mass destruction. The least we can expect is commonsensical professionals. I've told you about the best one I know -- Reuben Greenberg.

Attorney Austin Cunningham has been the president of five business companies and in 1988 was named Outstanding Elder Citizen of the Year for South Carolina.

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