EAST TAMPA RESIDENTS SEEK HELP IN DRUG WAR

TAMPA - From the back seat of a sport utility vehicle, Vivian Heyward gives
directions to the driver.

``Turn left here,'' she says, and the driver pulls onto 38th Street.

Heyward has a list of sites to see today, but this is no usual tour of her
east Tampa neighborhood. The driver is a Tampa narcotics officer, and she
wants to make sure he knows where to find the dealers and hookers.

``See, there's no streetlights,'' she says. ``They sell drugs here all
night because it's so dark.''

The drive past a Caribbean restaurant. ``See that, in the alley behind the
restaurant,'' she says. ``They congregate there, especially on the first of
the month. They've got everything, from crack to quaaludes.''

Driving on Osborne Avenue, the car passes a group of men grilling on a
vacant lot. ``That's just a throw off,'' Heyward says. ``They're not having
a barbecue. They're selling drugs.''

A community activist, Heyward and her neighbors have declared war on the
crime that is so pervasive around their homes. They organize drug marches.
They hold crime watch meetings. They pleaded with the Tampa City Council
for help.

Earlier this month they even asked the governor to send in the state police.

Queen Miller, who lives on 25th Street, wants her neighborhood back. The
users and sellers take over the street, especially at the beginning of the
month.

``I can't even sit on my front porch,'' Miller says. ``I feel like a hostage.''

The dealers sell dope at package stores, in front of houses, even across
the street from schools and churches, Miller says.

The complaints are nothing new to the police department's QUAD squad, which
stands for Quick Uniform Attack on Drugs. QUAD commander, Capt. Mike
George, said the undercover units were formed to attack street- level drug
dealing.

``We're doing a tremendous amount of work in this area,'' George says.

Every day the QUAD team works, the officers spend a portion of their day on
22nd Street or at Lake Avenue and 29th Street. In the three months from
February through April, Tampa police made 81 drug-related arrests in east
Tampa. Police seized 13 vehicles, 922.5 grams of marijuana and 118.4 grams
of cocaine. On one weekend in April, police arrested 32 suspects in an
sweep termed ``Operation Nexus.''

And they don't just go after the dealers. Undercover officers pose as
sellers in reverse sting operations.

``We arrest the buyers,'' George says. ``And we can seize their car. You
can't attack the supply without also going after the demand.''

The SUV makes its way down 22nd Street, past the empty lot where College
Hill public housing used to be. The apartments may be gone, but the
prostitutes and dealers still work the area, says Toni Watts, who works
with an east Tampa community development corporation.

``People aren't living here anymore, but there's still kids standing out
there,'' Watts says.

George understands their frustration. The city's three QUAD Squads made
more than 2,000 arrests last year, and Chief Bennie Holder has asked for
funding next year to add a fourth squad. But the problem is vast.

``Drug dealers are different from every other type of crime,'' he says.
``What they do affects everybody in the neighborhood. And we arrest them,
but they make bail. It takes a year, sometimes a year and a half before
they go to trial, and we may arrest them five or six times before they
plead out.''

He promises to keep trying. Two days after the tour, QUAD officers arrested
a suspected dealer at the corner of 22nd Street and 29th Avenue.