SHERIFF GIVES DEPUTIES NEW ROLE

East P.A. to use them as undercover cops

San Mateo County sheriff's deputies will play a new role in East Palo
Alto's fight against crime.

After months of wrangling about how to police the city, the sheriff and
city police chief decided to move the deputies from patrol duties in East
Palo Alto to detective and undercover positions.

The sheriff's deputies will target crime-ridden areas in the city such as
Sacramento Street and parts of Alberni Street and Clarke Avenue, officials
said.

The patrol work abandoned by the sheriff's deputies will be done by eight
new East Palo Alto police officers hired under a federal grant. Currently,
there are four sheriff's detectives and 10 patrols. Beginning in
September, there will be seven sheriff's detectives and seven deputies
working on a new crime suppression team.

The team formalizes a task force that had been working under the name
Operation Hot Spot, said Police Chief Wesley Bowling. Like the operation,
the team will focus on 18 areas where police believe crime is rampant.

``That is the majority of the problem we are facing. We have pockets that
are hot spots and we need to focus on them,'' said Bowling.

Among the problems in these areas are drug dealing and gang activity.

The changes will not cost the sheriff's department more money. In fiscal
1999, the department will allocate $1.6 million to protect East Palo Alto,
the same amount as it dedicated to the city in 1997-98.

Sheriff Don Horsley announced the new role of the deputies at a budget
hearing in Redwood City this week.

County Supervisor Ruben Barrales praised the sheriff for trying a new
approach: ``I applaud the sheriff for this new way of doing things. East
Palo Alto has a long way to go to be like other cities on the Peninsula . .
. in terms of its crime rate. The sheriff is using his resources to bust
up the bad guys.''

The change indicates that Horsley and Bowling have strengthened their once
tenuous relationship by working together, both officials agreed. The
sheriff and police department had bickered about who could best police the
city.

Resident Fred Kiani, a longtime police department critic, said the new
arrangement ``is hardly anything new,'' because he thinks the two agencies
cannot work side by side. Kiani said the sheriff's department should take
over the police department because it is ineffective. City council members,
however, believe the police department should be the prime public safety
agency.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)