HIGH POINT - Two years ago, 12 suspected drug dealers and their families were summoned by the police to a meeting where they faced police officers, ministers, social workers and residents from High Point's West End neighborhood.

The group told the dealers: We're tired of seeing our neighborhood ravaged by dope. Stop selling drugs on our streets right now. If you quit dealing, we will help you find jobs, housing, food and clothing. If you continue, you will be arrested and vigorously prosecuted.

Almost overnight, the drug market vanished.

"I am not kidding, it was like a Western at high noon," said the Rev. Jim Summey, a Baptist minister. "As far as this lined-up-down-the-street thing -- guys selling drugs like candy, Johns picking up girls like they are a dime a dozen -- it was gone."

Senior citizens sat on front porches again. Kids walked to Bible school. Families returned to deserted parks. And two years later, crime of all kinds in the neighborhood remains 33 percent lower than before the meeting.

Raleigh police learned of High Point's success and want to use this approach to eliminate outdoor drug markets in the city. Officers and experts have invited community members to help with the initiative. Police are now laying the groundwork in a Southeast Raleigh neighborhood, preparing for their own version of the meeting.

"I am very excited about the possibilities," said City Councilman James West, who represents Southeast Raleigh. "This is a program that's proactive. It is aimed at dealing with the root causes, the causes of all of this crime as opposed to some of the symptoms."

Those familiar with the approach in High Point, a city of about 90,000 just southwest of Greensboro, say it differs from other anti-drug initiatives because residents become involved in creating solutions. Ultimately, supporters say, the program alters the way residents, police and drug dealers view one another and interact.

"It may all sound like some kind of urban fairy tale," Summey said of the West End's dramatic turnaround. "But it wouldn't do me or those communities [any good] to lie. This program has changed this community."

The peacefulness of the West End surprises some of the residents, business owners and police who know how it used to be.

They say streets once looked like a drive-in movie theater. Cars clogged intersections as addicts bought crack on corners. Young men milled about pay phones or stores. On Sundays, a human bazaar of prostitutes and Johns stood outside English Road Baptist Church, preventing parishioners from pulling into the parking lot.

"It was like a big city, going all the time," said Belinda Beasley, a West End resident for 14 years. "Prostitutes up and down the street. You could look straight at them, and they would jump in and out of cars."

The neighborhood of modest single-family houses and a few boardinghouses was once home to workers at the nearby mills that earned High Point the nickname "Furniture Capital of the World." Now most of those factories are shuttered, and the houses are filled with renters or old-timers.

In 2001, Summey and two other pastors formed West End Ministries. The group opened a boys and girls club, organized cleanup days and pushed police to get drug dealers off street corners.

Despite those efforts, drug selling and violence were common.

"There was a sense of intimidation," Summey said. "The neighborhood had pulled in their boards and closed the shades."

At a 2003 community meeting with police and their new chief, Jim Fealy, more than 100 residents laid into city officials, saying they wanted some peace. Fealy had driven the streets and seen the dealers. He agreed that things had to change.

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