RESIDENTS ASSESS EAST TAMPA CLEANUP

Scale-Back Of Police A Concern To Many

TAMPA - The much publicized city initiative to clean up east Tampa is
halfway over, and residents stood up Monday with their critiques.

At two community meetings, police and representatives of other city
agencies met with residents to get feedback. Some applauded the efforts and
said the push to the streets of crime and filth and was long overdue.

Monday morning's meeting was at the Jackson Heights Community Center. The
evening meeting was at St. John's Progressive Missionary Baptist Church.

Drug dealers, prostitutes and thugs have taken over the neighborhoods of
Belmont Heights, Jackson Heights, Southeast Seminole Heights and College
Hill, attendees at the morning meeting said.

Others said police are still unresponsive when calls for help are made. All
agreed that to be successful, the initiative can't abruptly end Saturday,
when it is scheduled to be scaled back.

"We are happy to see what has been done," said the Rev. Abraham Brown of
the First Baptist Church of College Hill. "We have a problem that didn't
start yesterday, and we all know we aren't going to get rid of the problem
overnight."

He said what the community needs is a commitment that police will respond
to calls for service after the initiative ends.

At the morning meeting Tampa Police Chief Bennie Holder vowed to continue
making a presence in east Tampa after Saturday, as much as his budget will
allow.

"We will leave enough officers in place to keep pressure on the criminals
in this community," he said.

As many as 50 additional officers flooded the streets last week, as part of
Operation Commitment. The idea was to sweep criminals, mainly drug dealers,
off the streets as well as spruce up the neighborhoods by tagging and
towing junk cars and citing owners of overgrown or trash-strewn lots.

As of Monday morning, police had arrested 124 suspected felons and 132
people on misdemeanor charges. City inspectors cited 382 code violations
and placed towing tags on 484 junk vehicles, many of which were towed last
week.

Police said that 83 percent of those arrested had prior criminal records.
Maj. Jane Siling didn't know if any had been released from jail yet, but
did say none had been rearrested.

The evening meeting drew a crowd of about 200, several of whom praised the
effort but asked the city to install better lighting, provide more
resources for youths and economic development, and develop varied patrol
routes.

Many, like Sherry Simons of the Southeast Seminole Heights neighborhood
watch, asked the police to tackle prostitution aggressively. She said she
drove to Nebraska Avenue about 3 a.m. Sunday and found a crowd of
prostitutes and johns. "The minute we're not there, they come back," she said.

Gladys Jackson, 60, who has lived in the 3600 block of East Genessee Street
for seven years, described a boarding house at 3702 E. Chelsea St. where
drug dealers and prostitutes harass the neighbors. She said she found a
prostitute servicing a customer outside her house last week.

"They're like roaches. You spray them, they come back," Jackson said. "We
need this 365 days a year."

East Tampa Business and Civic Association President Laura Fuller said many
people don't call police because they fear retaliation from drug dealers.

Holder said callers can request anonymity and pleaded with residents to
call whenever they see the law being broken. He promised to keep after drug
dealers even after they are released from jail.

"I can assure you we are going to stay right on their butts and keep
chasing them," he said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin contributed to this report.