POLICE AIM TO RECLAIM EAST SIDE

120 Officers Added To Curb Violence On Area's Streets; District Leads In Homicides

The boots, tied together in a double knot, hung from a power line looping over North Bethel Street - notice that drug dealers have claimed this dead-end patch of East Baltimore real estate.

"They will be gone tomorrow," said Sgt. Thomas J. Joyce as he questioned a group of young men standing near a suspicious car with a Washington, D.C., license plate. "They are an insult to me."

Baltimore police have started their latest effort to reclaim the city's most violent neighborhoods. A force of 120 more officers hit the east side Tuesday, an answer to the criminals who have claimed places like the 1800 block of N. Bethel St., where three families live alongside 17 empty, crumbling rowhouses.

"I'm not lonely," said Edmond King, 66, who watched officers converge on his block, which dead-ends before reaching East North Avenue. "I've got the drug dealers."

He pointed out that the boots on the power line have marked this block as gang turf for six months.

The latest crackdown on violence follows complaints from residents that officers simply drive by corner drug deals and statistics that prove tough talk from a new police administration hasn't stifled the city's appetite for violence.

Homicides number 196 this year, more than 30 above last year's pace. The Eastern District leads the city with 40. "We either do it now, or we don't do it at all," said Sgt. Stanton W. Clark, a 25-year veteran.

But assembling the small army in an understaffed department has come at a price. Officers are being pulled from the city's eight other districts, meaning that in some of the quieter neighborhoods, colleagues left behind are now responsible for protecting twice as much territory.

Commissioner Edward T. Norris has repeatedly said that citizens will not notice a difference in service and defended his directive to put police where they are needed most.

Authorities in Washington are trying similar tactics. Chief Charles H. Ramsay pulled de-tectives to put 250 extra officers on his city's streets after a wave of violence earlier this year, then cut back and criticized the practice.

But on Tuesday, Ramsay reversed himself and sent a new force of 250 back to crime-ridden streets.

Sheldon F. Greenberg, director of the Police Executive Leadership Program at the Johns Hopkins University, said throwing more officers into a neighborhood can be counterproductive, especially if they are merely answering emergency calls.

"While the public says it likes to see police, there is a point where saturation has an adverse effect," Greenberg said. "If the public sees too many police, it actually raises fear levels as they begin to question, 'What is happening in my neighborhood?'

"If it's done in such a way that patrols are directed and planned, it has some merit," he added. "If an increased number of officers are simply placed on patrol, it is unlikely there will be any result."

That is what city police said they are trying to avoid. Two years ago, as the homicide count neared 300, the former commissioner flooded the Eastern District with troops in a desperate bid for favorable year-end statistics.

Staring at a homicide count of 294 halfway through December 1998, Lt. Donald E. Healy took to the podium, pounded his fists and warned the extra-duty officers: "We do not want another g------ homicide in Baltimore City."

The year ended with 314 dead. There were 311 people killed the next year.

Tuesday, Healy once again found himself directing a platoon of officers ordered to flood the Eastern District. "This one has potential," he said.

Police commanders said the 1998 initiative lacked focus and organization. Officers were simply sent to the streets and told to clear the crowded corners in a free-for-all. "No direction, no plan," said Deputy Commissioner Barry W. Powell.

This time, Powell said officers are assigned to neighborhoods where crime is worst. There is one sergeant for every five officers. Strategists have plotted the shootings and drug arrests and said they know how many are linked through disputes over territory or retaliation.

Officers are being deployed accordingly and will shift as crime patterns change. "This is not a lockup detail," said Col. Robert Novak, chief of patrol. "This is a crime prevention detail."

If it works, the officers assigned to the initiative might become a new roving tactical squad that could respond to trouble spots, similar to what Norris had when he was a commander in the New York Police Department.

The mission on the street is simple:

"If you are working in a problem area, you will not allow anyone to loiter on the corner," Lt. Gregory A. Eads told his officers. "If they don't believe you, send them down to [the city jail]. If they get out, we lock them up again."

Novak, addressing the seemingly unrelenting violence, told the officers it is all about pride: "Aren't you tired of being told you can't do anything about it?"

Many of the officers reassigned to the Eastern District had never patrolled the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. Others clutched maps to find their way in unfamiliar territory.

Radio calls piled up. One man called police to complain that the drug dealer he saw when he left for work in the morning was still selling when he returned in the evening.

No one was shot or killed in the district Tuesday afternoon and night; only one report of gunfire came in, from the 1000 block of Bonaparte Ave., where four to five shots were heard.

All day and night, police cruisers crisscrossed streets. Officers were so busy in the late afternoon that calls were backing up, and frantic dispatchers were asking officers assigned to the initiative to help on routine matters.

A woman flagged down Healy at East Lafayette and Rutland avenues with a typical drug complaint. "This fella in the red shirt," she said, pointing to a man up the street, "has been screaming red tops all day. Can you do something?"

Red tops refers to the color of drug vials; the color signifies the brand a dealer is selling that day. Healy stopped the 48-year-old man, who is four months into a four-year probation term for drug possession.

"What did I do wrong, sir?" the man asked.

Healy found no narcotics, but did turn up six used hypodermic needles in a crumpled brown paper bag. The man was let go.

Later, Healy noted people packing corners along Ashland Avenue, a common complaint from residents.

"I can only assume that all the patrol officers are running to so many calls that this has become a low priority," the lieutenant said.

With the extra 100 officers, he said, "This is going to change."