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