Pubdate: Thu, 15 Aug 2002
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2002, The Tribune Co.
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Section: Metro, page 6
Author: Stephen Thompson of the Tribune

PINELLAS SHERIFF, ST.PETE POLICE TOUT SUCCESSES AGAINST DRUGS

94 Suspected Dealers Arrested Since May

ST. PETERSBURG - Some five years ago, Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice 
stopped his office's narcotics operations with the St. Petersburg Police 
Department after the two agencies fought over who should pay workers' 
compensation for a confidential informant who ran into a car during a joint 
undercover operation.

But several months ago, Rice was asked to come back into the city after the 
police were harshly criticized for not doing enough to rid predominantly 
poor, black neighborhoods of street-level drug dealers.

Rice did.

On Wednesday, Rice, St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon and St. 
Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker held a news conference to trumpet the results.

Since late May, cases have been built against 94 suspected dealers, almost 
all of whom are charged with selling crack cocaine. More than 30 have been 
convicted, and others were paraded before television cameras and newspaper 
photographers Wednesday to publicize the crackdown.

The effort was described as a collaborative effort between Rice's office 
and St. Petersburg police. But all 94 cases were initiated by sheriff's 
undercover detectives, and they will track the cases as they wend through 
the judicial system.

Police administrators conceded that St. Petersburg's finest essentially 
assisted the sheriff's deputies - providing cover during undercover buys of 
small amounts of the drug, or identifying suspects when sheriff's narcotics 
detectives couldn't.

And police conceded they have not beefed up the staffing of their own 
street-level narcotics squads, which remain at half the strength they were 
when first put together.

Indeed, the city police department, which has seen the number of 
street-level narcotics arrests plummet in recent years, won't even be able 
to count these cases toward their own totals under the state's uniform 
crime reporting standards.

Rice gets to.

``No, this isn't credited to our arrests,'' admitted Assistant Police Chief 
Dave DeKay. But, he added, not getting that credit was well worth the price 
of getting dealers off street corners.

``This is a new type of catch for us,'' he said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart