POLICE SAY FUNDS HELPED REDUCE CRIME

WEST KENDALL- As county budget season looms, Hammocks District police are
showing off the results of $250,000 handed to them last year by Mayor Alex
Penelas in hopes the money will continue to flow.

Each district in the Miami-Dade Police Department was granted a quarter of a
million dollars last fall to spend on special crime-fighting initiatives.

The experimental "Enhanced Enforcement Initiative" dollars went largely to
pay for officers' overtime wages and undercover car rentals. The extra hours
allowed freed-up officers to work on special tasks.

"This was an overwhelming success," Lt. Ricky Gomez said this week.

Gomez put together several Hammocks details that were imitated in other
districts as well.

Among the projects: extra traffic enforcement and sweeps to clamp down on
gang activity, illegal dumping and hunting in the East Everglades and stings
to catch convenience stores that sell alcohol to minors. That final
operation checked out nearly 60 stores and cited 22 clerks.

But Gomez said the greatest two successes -- operations he would like to
expand next year -- were a pawn shop detail and a series of curfew sweeps.

"We definitely want to keep curfew [sweeps] going next year," Gomez said.
"Curfew is addressing the needs of the community. The kids we are picking
up, they aren't the ones that snuck out the window to go bowling. They are
out to commit crimes."

Nearly one-third of the Enhanced Enforcement Initiative dollars spent in the
Hammocks District went to curfew sweeps picking up minors after 11 p.m. on
school nights and midnight on weekends. The teams responded to calls of
loitering youths and clamped down on popular late-night hangouts.

The total cost to the taxpayer of the 46 nights of curfew details in the
Hammocks: $71,468.68. The curfew sweeps netted a total of 788 violators, 10
felony arrests, 53 misdemeanor arrests, 16 traffic arrests, 247 vehicle
citations and 1,106 field interview reports.

"I didn't expect it to be as good as it was," Gomez said. "What was most
surprising to me was that it continued to be the same numbers of people
every weekend, that the violations didn't go down. But every time we did a
sweep, crime in the district went down that weekend."

That was especially the case in car theft and break-in rates, he said.

The majority of the felony arrests were for cocaine possession. Most
misdemeanor arrests were for marijuana possession and trespassing.

Nine grams of cocaine and 311.5 grams of marijuana were seized. The busts
that began with a question about being out after curfew sometimes led to
bigger arrests.

"In November we stopped two kids dealing outside a home near [Southwest]
152nd Avenue and 80th Street," said Sgt. Frederick Poling, one of the
leaders of the curfew sweeps. "We did a consent to search, went inside and
found a hydroponic lab."

Gomez said enforcing the curfew was saving lives.

"I got here [at the Hammocks District] in 1996 and every weekend then we had
a fatal vehicle accident involving a juvenile," Gomez said. "They were all
alcohol-related. Since the curfew started really being enforced, I don't
remember the last time we had a traffic fatality involving a juvenile."

The pawn shop detail involved sending officers to churn through huge stacks
of paperwork, radioing back names and objects to see if they matched wanted
persons or stolen merchandise.

Police went to 17 pawn shops, inspected 2,314 pieces of jewelry and
performed 2,436 background checks. They found 120 people wanted for arrest
who had recently pawned something and were able to catch 62 of them based on
their pawn records. One jewelry store was closed after three stings were
performed in which clerks bought what they thought was stolen merchandise.

"To a burglar some guy's 17-inch TV is just worth like $5," said Detective
Erick Gonzales, head of the pawn shop investigations. "But for the victim
it's a big deal. So they're very appreciative when we call and say, `Hey,
remember that TV that got stolen four months ago? You can come pick it up
now.' That's what's fun."

As police prepared final accountings of how they spent the Enhanced
Enforcement Initiative monies, their eyes turned toward how they might apply
this year's lessons for greater success next year.

"Right now is the time for us to really reduce crime," Gomez said. "The
economy is so good, and diversionary programs are in place. I don't want to
sound overly optimistic, but we are in the position to really do it. It's
gone down, but it can go even lower."

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