METRO POLICE CREDITED WITH COOLING DRUG SALES

The summer violence was escalating, and Metro police weren't sure what was
causing a rash of shootings, or what to do about them. Three people were
shot in a public-housing development on the last weekend in July, an act
that was a precursor of more to come.

Next came the fatal shooting of a man at an east Nashville car wash Aug. 5.
The next night a 15-year-old was shot and killed in his home. Then a
juvenile was shot in the chest in north Nashville on Aug. 8.

As a result, acting Police Chief Deborah Faulkner said, she put together a
task force from several of the department's divisions, marshaling resources
at a scale not often seen here and aiming them squarely at street-level
drug dealers.

Since the launch of the task force, most of the drug-related shootings have
stopped, and it's been more than a month since there's been a drug-related
slaying.

As of last week, the operation had led to the arrests of 242 people, six of
whom provided clues into some of the shootings. Officers had seized 18
guns; 161/2 ounces of crack, a refined form of cocaine; a little more than
6 ounces of powdered cocaine; 12 ounces of marijuana; and $63,714 in cash.

Although it is too early to tell whether the success will continue, police
say their efforts have made a huge difference - so much so that they're
making it difficult for drug dealers to do business.

The police presence is just too hot for drug dealers to ply their trade on
the usual corners, said Capt. Gary Goodwin, who commands Metro's Vice Division.

"There's such a tie between street-level violence and street-level drug
sales that we felt like a good way to try to impact that . violence was to
really aggressively enforce those violating street-level drug sales," he said.

It's not that the supply of drugs here has dried up, he said. It's just
that undercover vice officers, posing as drug buyers as a way to catch
dealers, are having difficulty making buys because other officers have been
hitting drug areas with so much manpower.

"When I go see them and talk to them and they say, 'Man, we can't find any
drugs to buy,' that's pretty incredible," Goodwin said.

Faulkner said that, when undercover agents roll up on a corner to buy dope,
drug dealers complain, "Man, it's too hot. Vice is out here."

As well as crackdowns on street-corner sales, police officials used other
crime-fighting tools.

They studied crime mapping and other analysis tools to focus their manpower
on violence and drug hot spots.

They also brought together undercover vice officers, the Vice Division's
Crime Suppression unit, Intelligence Division agents who monitor gang
activity and officers from three of the city's five police sectors - west,
east and central - and aimed them squarely at street drug sales.

They've also asked homicide detectives to provide intelligence from arrests
they make related to shootings or other violent crimes in the city.

"It's a holistic approach," Goodwin said. "You don't just have one group
over here doing stand-alone police work."

One reality is that the enforcement push takes resources away from other
areas of the city, which means officials continually must monitor whether
they're taking too many officers away from burglary, theft and other calls
in other areas, he said.