PHOENIX TO UNVEIL PLAN TO REDUCE VIOLENCE, MURDERS LINKED TO DRUGS

Phoenix officials, worried about escalating violence and murders that
can be linked to drug traffickers, will announce a plan on Tuesday
that they hope will turn the tide.

The goal is to reduce homicides by 30 percent in 30 months in a city
that recorded 235 in 1999, an increase from 1998's total of 199.

Investigators believe 37 of the 1999 murders to be drug-related as
well as 46 of those from the previous year.

"I hope to have the Police Department outline a solid program that
will give us the ability to reduce homicides and bring those
responsible to justice," said City Councilman Dave Siebert, chairman
of a council subcommittee on public safety.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt will outline the program during a
subcommittee meeting set for Tuesday, according to a Siebert memo to
council members that was released Friday afternoon.

The program would entail a 19-member task force of three supervisors
as well as 12 Phoenix homicide, drug and organized-crime
investigators, four federal agents, and two crime analysts who will
coordinate intelligence.

It is to be modeled after Redrum -- "murder" spelled backward -- which
was launched by an elite federal-local homicide squad formed in Miami
following an explosion of drug-related violence in the early 1990s,
sources said.

In Phoenix, the pattern of homicide and violent crime "has reached
critical proportions in relation to the safety of our community,"
Siebert said.

Federal officials released a 1997 report that identified 11 "major
drug trafficking organizations" that flourish by smuggling cocaine and
marijuana across the Mexican border.