COUGHING UP FOR CRACKDOWN

A Federal Operation Forces Property Owners To Fight Drugs At Their Own Expense

For six years, owners of a tiny strip mall in northwest Atlanta have asked
government officials to help rid the area of drug dealers.

The government's response: Hire off-duty cops to patrol the strip mall or
we will take your property. The family members who own the Hollywood Plaza
in northwest Atlanta have not been accused of any crime. They pay their
taxes. They call 911 when there is a problem.

But the owners have been caught up in the U.S. attorney's Operation
Crackdown. It is a 3-year-old program aimed at cleaning up crime-ridden
areas of Atlanta by shifting responsibility from police to people who own
property where drug dealing flourishes. If owners don't comply with
government demands, the feds can go to court and attempt to seize the property.

Many city businesses, including Buckhead bars and supermarkets all over
town, opt to hire off-duty police officers to provide extra security. It's
a choice they make, an expense they factor into the cost of running their
business. The owners of Hollywood Plaza weren't given a choice.

So far, complying with demands from the U.S. Attorney's Office has cost the
Hollywood Plaza owners about $45,000, said Tasha Greer, one of the family
owners of the strip mall. That includes the $14,508 a month it costs to pay
the three cops who stand guard at the property. The security costs the
owners about $10,000 a month more than they get from rent, Greer said. They
had to get a loan to cover the loss.

"We can't afford it," Greer said. "The thing that's most unfair is having
to hire police officers." Police and federal prosecutors say the extra
security is the best way to quickly fix the problem, especially since
Hollywood Plaza is a magnet for drug deals.

Metal grates and bars cover all the windows at the Hollywood Plaza, which
has two convenience stores, a pool hall, a soul food restaurant, a beauty
salon and a laundromat. Drug dealers often hang out in front of the pool
hall or sit on a wall across the street from the mall.

Police made at least 32 drug arrests there from January of 1999 to
September of 2000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. One day in May,
police received 20 calls at the strip mall.

Patrick Crosby, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the feds do
not want to seize the mall. "We're trying not to take her property," Crosby
said. "We're trying to clean it up by working with the family and the
Atlanta Police Department."

Operation Crackdown has targeted about 110 properties in Atlanta during the
past three years, Crosby said. Most were abandoned houses taken over by
crack cocaine dealers. Fewer than 10 percent of them were seized. In most
cases, owners clean up the property and work with police to get rid of drug
dealers, Crosby said. Of those 110 properties, federal prosecutors have
required the owners of 12 commercial properties with drug problems to hire
off-duty cops. Those businesses were restaurants, stores and large
apartment complexes. None of the commercial properties were seized.

Maj. Vince Moore, commander of the Atlanta police precinct that includes
the area around Hollywood Plaza, is a big advocate of working with the U.S.
Attorney's Office to clean up drug areas. He believes the federal
intervention led to cooperation of the strip mall's owners and eventually
will lead to a better neighborhood. "We can go lock up people all day long
. . . but when the owner gets involved and cleans up their property then
things get done," he said. Without the possibility of seizure, some
property owners aren't motivated to make improvements, he said.

"That's one of the most useful tools we can use."

Police patrol the area on a regular basis, but can't post an officer there
all the time, Moore said. Atlanta residents pay for 1,800 police positions,
but only 1,425 cops are working for the department. That number does not
include recruits in training.

Even if 1,800 cops were working for the department, there would not be
enough to post an officer on private property, said Maj. Calvin Moss,
police spokesman.

Perry Boulevard has long been a notorious crime area, but the area has
undergone dramatic changes in the past two years. The Perry Homes housing
project was shut down in August of 2000. Developers plan new townhomes and
a golf course on the nearby Gun Club landfill, said Atlanta City
Councilwoman Felicia Moore.

Felicia Moore said she sees Hollywood Plaza's future as a mixture of
upscale retail and apartments. She introduced Greer's grandmother, Madelyn
Chennault, to developers who are interested in buying the strip mall. For
now, the Hollywood Plaza owners aren't selling.

Operation Crackdown has its roots in laws passed during the Reagan
administration. In 1984, America's drug war targets expanded from people to
property when the U.S. Congress passed laws allowing federal civil seizures
of private property that officials claimed was connected to drugs. In 1993,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government had to give owners a hearing
before they could seize property.

Last year, Congress passed a law shifting the burden of proof from property
owners to the government. The feds can still seize property as long as they
prove owners did not make reasonable steps to rid their land of drug
dealers. The U.S. Attorney's Office may not file forfeiture proceedings
against Hollywood Plaza, especially since the owners have taken some steps
to comply with the federal demands, Crosby said. Prosecutors will review
the case in the coming months to see whether the area is drug-free.

Greer installed tamper-proof security lights, removed all pay phones to
keep drug dealers from using them and bought a chain-link fence to keep
people from walking between the Hollywood Plaza and a high-crime park
behind the strip mall.

In the meantime, police, paid for by the Hollywood Plaza owners, will
continue to guard the strip mall. Crosby said prosecutors demand the use of
off-duty cops at troubled commercial properties because police have more
arrest powers than security guards and owners. Private citizens cannot stop
someone for trespassing. Instead they have to call and wait for the police.
Often, unwanted drug dealers walk away before police arrive.

The off-duty cops at Hollywood Plaza have not made an arrest since they
started working there July 5. Crosby said the requirement to hire off-duty
officers is not a job placement program for police, but an innovative way
to quickly clean up a problem area.

"APD can't be there 24/7," Crosby said.

Reaction in the neighborhood is mixed.

The Rev. Carlos Simon runs the Galilee Way of the Cross Church across the
street from the strip mall. He said the mall's owners have been good
neighbors and cooperate in community meetings to get rid of drug dealers.

The problem, he said, are abandoned apartment buildings called Parkside
where prostitutes and drug dealers have moved in, despite boarded up
windows and doors. The U.S. Attorney's Office threatened to seize that
property, too, and the owners evicted all the tenants. A small unkempt park
behind the strip mall also attracts criminals, Simon said. The occasional
police sweeps in the area are helpful, but not enough, he said.

The presence of the off-duty cops has brought down crime, said Gene Holley,
owner of the Ax Handle & Sons Convenience Store, which is in the strip mall.

"Since they have been here it has been peaceful," Holley said. But he
worries government officials, frustrated by their inability to stop drugs,
are targeting legitimate business owners.

"The police would come out a couple times, but you know you arrest 10, here
will come 10 more," Holley said. "They feel they can't catch them, so they
target us."

PAY MORE, OR LOSE PROPERTY Federal prosecutors told owners of the Hollywood
Plaza strip mall to pay extra for police protection or the feds would seize
their property. The tactic is part of a strategy to rid neighborhoods of
drug dealers. But the Hollywood Plaza owners are not suspected of a drug
movement.