BROWN TURNS UP HEAT ON HALLINAN

S.F. Mayor May Ask For Drug Task Force

SAN FRANCISCO - Stepping up his pressure campaign against San Francisco
District Attorney Terence Hallinan, Mayor Willie Brown said yesterday that
he may ask for the creation of a joint federal-state-city task force to
enforce drug and prostitution laws in the city.

Brown said he is considering asking U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller for
suggestions on how the federal government could help San Francisco deal
with prostitution and what he has called a "crisis in our city" over drugs.
He has already asked state Attorney General Bill Lockyer for similar
suggestions.

"I am upping the ante," Brown said.

"I don't know what they will recommend," the mayor said, "but one
possibility could be a task force, with the DEA (Drug Enforcement
Administration), FBI, the U.S. attorney's staff and our local police.

"Discussions will take place with law enforcement and prosecutors about
this," the mayor said.

In his letter to Lockyer, dated Friday, Brown wrote, "I am deeply concerned
about the perception that San Francisco is lax when it comes to serious
crimes being conducted on our streets, often openly in the light of day,
and I am determined to marshal all the resources at my disposal to
effectively deal with this problem."

Brown apparently became angry with Hallinan, his longtime political ally,
after KRON-TV broadcast a series showing open drug dealing and interviews
with drug dealers who said they came to the city from elsewhere in the Bay
Area to carry out their trade because of its easygoing image.

Police and Brown were also upset by the Board of Supervisors' defeat last
week of a proposal to seize the cars of people suspected of soliciting
prostitutes or buying drugs.

Brown said he did not see any contradiction between his backing of
Hallinan's re-election last year and his current campaign of upbraiding the
district attorney.

"My support for him has absolutely nothing to do with the failure we as a
city are experiencing with excessive prostitution or drug dealing, period,"
he said.

Brown said he did not want San Francisco to become the scene of overt drug
wars of the type that have hit Oakland or Richmond. "I don't want it
spilling over into our city," he said.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Lockyer, said the attorney general "will
of course be interested and willing to work with the mayor and the district
attorney on any of their law enforcement needs."

Those "needs," Barankin said, would have to be determined at a meeting with
Brown and Hallinan.

"I know that (Lockyer) has had a chance to speak to the district attorney,"
said Barankin, without giving specifics of the telephone call. "He's trying
to get in contact with the mayor. He's hoping a meeting can happen sooner
rather than later."

The U.S. attorney's ofThce already works with law enforcement in San
Francisco and other cities on prosecuting drug and gun cases. Matthew
Jacobs, assistant U.S. attorney and a spokesman for Mueller, said he would
not comment on any plans Brown might have to contact his ofThce.

Brown and Hallinan met yesterday at City Hall, but both said they did not
talk about the TV report.

Hallinan said the two had discussed moving a program that helps single
parents from the district attorney to the mayor's ofThce. He described the
meeting as "cordial."

Asked what he thought about the TV report and Brown's letter to Lockyer,
Hallinan said, "I haven't seen the letter. . . . I watched the Channel 4
show -it's disturbing. I don't like to see people out dealing drugs in
broad daylight or in the dark on street corners. The police make arrests.
And when they do, we prosecute to what extent we are able to."

Hallinan said he did not feel he was under attack, but added, "I was
surprised by (Brown's moves). He could have picked the phone and phoned me.
And we would probably have had a nice conversation. He has a right to ask
whatever he wants."

Brown raised the possibility of inviting in federal agents after his
meeting with Hallinan ended. Fred Gardner, a spokesman for the district
attorney, said Hallinan had no comment on the idea.

Hallinan has made no secret of his preference for alternatives to jail for
many drug and prostitution offenders, such as counseling and education
programs. Last year, when The Chronicle reported that his ofThce's
conviction record was the worst among the state's 58 counties, Hallinan
said, "I would assume that San Francisco has more drug cases than just
about anywhere else, and more of a tendency to divert them. I don't
begrudge that. I like diversion. I like to give (nonviolent offenders) an
opportunity. . . . Hopefully, at least some of them make it."

Among supervisors, those on both side of the car-seizure issue supported
Brown's letter to Lockyer.

"These are big-time actors, not the little middlemen," Supervisor Amos
Brown said of the people he wants Hallinan to pursue. "The authorities know
who they are." The supervisor proposed the car-seizure law.

Supervisor Gavin Newsom, who voted against the idea, said Brown's moves
were "exactly the resolve that we need to hold each and everyone of use
accountable.

". . . We are all equally to blame for not aggressively addressing this
problem."

Chronicle staff writer Jaxon Van Derbeken contributed to this report.