POLICE UNIT PUSHES BACK AGAINST DRUGS

The 12-Member Squad Has Arrested Or Cited 138 People
Since Being Formed About A Month Ago

ST. PETERSBURG - Devin Holmes ran away when police rolled up to the
house in the Twinbrooks neighborhood.

A Street Crimes Unit officer caught the 19-year-old, patted his front
pockets and found 38 pieces of crack cocaine in an M&Ms container.

For a street dealer, that's a big inventory.

"What that tells me is we're out there getting the people drawing the
buyers to St. Pete," said Lt. Melanie Bevan, commander of the city's
newly formed Street Crimes Unit.

Holmes, who spent a night in jail, is among 138 people arrested or
cited since Bevan's unit began work Oct. 20. The 12-member squad is an
offshoot of GAP, the Gun Abatement Project, a temporary police task
force formed in the spring after drug-related shootings involving
high-powered rifles.

The unit will concentrate on drugs and guns to reduce violent crime.
Drugs were a motive in five of the city's 23 homicides this year,
police said. Several more involved suspects or victims linked to drugs.

"It's common practice for people involved in the drug trade to be
armed," homicide Sgt. Mike Puetz said. "When even minor disputes
arise, they can lead to gunfire."

In the past four weeks, SCU officers have arrested 74 people on drug
charges and seized three guns and 11 cars. A Lakeland man arrested
this month in St. Petersburg on a marijuana possession charge was
carrying $38,935, which police seized.

"We're just becoming good at what we do," Bevan said.

The arrest log shows young men caught with stashes of 20, 26 and 30
pieces of crack cocaine, "substantial hits for people on the street,"
Bevan said.

Either those sellers just got supplied or they are growing more
brazen, police said. When Bevan worked as an undercover detective in
the late '80s to early '90s, it was unusual to find a street dealer
with more than five pieces of crack. Each piece, depending on size,
sells for about $20.

"You never found people with 30 rocks in their pocket," she said.
"You're talking $600. That's a lot of dope for these people to be
carrying around."

Like GAP, most of the arrests by the citywide SCU officers are in
neighborhoods south of Central Avenue, where police say residents
complain most about open-air drug dealing. Twelve of the city's 23
homicides have been in Midtown.

"They're going to go where the issues are," police Chief Chuck Harmon
said of the SCU during a recent meeting of neighborhood
associations.

The new unit, which replaced the city's Street Narcotics team, will
work with community police officers to determine issues in
neighborhoods throughout the city, Harmon said. Some community police
officers have already helped the new unit on drug operations.

In addition to undercover work, SCU officers stop motorists for
traffic violations, which might yield illegal drugs. The unit has
written 136 traffic tickets in a month.

It might be too soon to determine what impact St. Petersburg's recent
narcotics strategies have had on the violent crime rate. But Tampa
police report success from a unit similar to the SCU.

"We make a difference," said Capt. Marion Lewis, who supervises 40
officers in Tampa's Quad Squad, or Quick Uniform Attack on Drugs.
"Drugs and guns go hand in hand."

The Tampa unit, which serves a larger population with a higher crime
rate, makes an average of 300 arrests a month, Lewis said.

"Drug dealing is a very lucrative business," Lewis said. "As long as
there's money to be made and a demand, they're going to be out there
selling it. We have to come up with very creative ways to target and
arrest these folks."

St. Petersburg resident Theresa McEachern, 55, has lived in the
Harbordale neighborhood 26 years. There was a murder in her
neighborhood this year.

From her front door, McEachern used to watch prostitutes and young men
come and go at all hours from three corners, but she doesn't see as
much suspicious activity now. She drove around the neighborhood on a
recent night.

"Surprisingly, it was relatively quiet out there," McEachern said. "I
saw very little activity. Maybe a speckling of young men on the street."