POLICE ACTION AGAINST DRUGS OFTEN INVISIBLE

The Slow Approach Often Taken - Dictated by Law and a Desire to Catch
Bigger Fish - Frustrates Residents in Affected Areas

ST. PETERSBURG - Young men wait at the street corner. When a car
approaches, they run to the door, ready to exchange drugs for money.

They shout threats at neighbors, and yell "po-po" as a warning when
police cruisers show up.

Here, in the Palmetto Park neighborhood in the Midtown area of St.
Petersburg, many residents wonder: Why can't police just arrest the
dealers and shut down the drug house?

"These houses are breeding grounds for drugs and crime," said Desiree
Cammardella, 45, at a recent neighborhood watch meeting. "I want to
know what it takes for police officers to take action. ... A few bad
houses are ruining the community."

It's a refrain heard in neighborhoods across the country. When people
see evidence of brazen drug dealing and call police, they expect
officers to charge into the house, seize the drugs and throw the
criminals in jail that same day.

It rarely works that way.

The reality of narcotics work is far more complicated, and more
covert. Police officers need to show probable cause that a crime has
occurred before they can enter a house suspected to be a site of drug
dealing. And they want to ensure they don't jeopardize other
investigations or the lives of officers.

"I understand how frustrating it can be for somebody to live in a
neighborhood and see what they believe to be drug dealing," said
William Proffitt, former head of the St. Petersburg Police
Department's vice and narcotics division, who now is the department's
spokesman.

"The trouble has always been if we have a number of undercover
operations in your neighborhood, you're not going to see them. And yet
we could be doing all kinds of things and you're not going to know
about it until a certain time down the road."

In Palmetto Park, many residents are frustrated. After a recent spree
of robberies, drug dealers hurled Molotov cocktails at the homes of
two families active in the neighborhood watch program last Sunday.
They say they're still waiting for police to shut down several houses
where drug dealing takes place.

"The police can't tell me anything," said Wade Burghardt, 33, who's
campaigned against local drug dealers and had one of the cocktails hit
his house. "The only thing they can say is that the issue will
eventually be resolved."

Katrina Conner-Mustafa, 36, lives in one of the houses some neighbors
have branded drug houses. Conner-Mustafa said new residents moving
into Palmetto Park are mistaking the rhythms of a big family for drug
dealing. She lives with her parents and several other relatives.

Neighbors have called police numerous times to complain of drug
activity at her family's house.

"They have a big family. They have lots of friends," she said. "You're
telling me they can't see them?"

But she conceded that drug dealing does take place in the
neighborhood: "There's drugs around here, but not in this house."

Before they can execute a search warrant and raid a house known for
drug dealing, police need to establish probable cause that connects a
residence to illegal activity.

Spotting a dealer on the sidewalk isn't enough. Police usually need
more evidence before they can ask a judge for permission to search a
private home, prosecutors say. Sometimes, it can take months or even
years.

"Search warrants have to be specific to search for the thing that is
illegal at the residence in a specific location," said Pat Siracusa, a
prosecutor at the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office who's worked
with neighborhood activists to put away drug dealers. "They are very
specific orders."

But the difficulty of obtaining evidence isn't the only reason that
narcotics investigations can take a long time.

Detectives could learn that a house they're looking into is connected
to a bigger network of drug dealers. They could be waiting for a big
shipment of drugs to arrive at the house. Or they may decide to learn
more about weapons and other dangers inside before making a move.

It took six months for St. Pete Beach police and the Sheriff's Office
to launch Operation Sand Spur, which led to the arrest of dozens of
people in St. Pete Beach on drug-related charges this weekend. The
sting came after complaints from local residents and business owners.

"If you're in a hurry, you miss things," said captain Michael Platt,
who oversees vice and narcotics at the Pinellas County Sheriff's
Office. "If you don't do your homework and look at your target long
enough, you could jump into a nest of pit bulls that are nasty."

Platt said the Sheriff's Office generally likes undercover officers to
make multiple buys at suspected drug houses. If they find connections
between a house and a much bigger network, they could wait to learn
more before moving in.

Authorities also stress the need to work under the radar when trying
to shut down the drug trade. They say they understand that concerned
residents might not see them at work.

"Our actions are more covert in nature," said Maj. Dave Hawkins,
current head of the St. Petersburg Police Department's vice and
narcotics division.

The department's approach has yielded some success in recent years.
The number of drug-related arrests citywide rose from 1,771 in 2002 to
3,074 in 2005.

Police also have increased arrests in Palmetto Park. Patrick McGovern,
the community police officer for the neighborhood, said police made
280 drug-related arrests in 2005, and about 100 so far this year. He
said the neighborhood is safer than it has been in the past.

Still, McGovern acknowledged that drug dealers still frequent the
area.

"Grabbing the street buyer, the street seller ... we do that on a
regular basis," McGovern said. "Our ultimate goal is to get into the
house."