OPERATION HOTSPOT

A Saturday Night on Patrol with the East Palo Alto Police

Next to the seven shotguns in Sgt. Tom Alipio's office hangs a large Harley
Davidson calendar inscribed with the words "Busy Night, Big City." As Sgt.
Alipio huddles with his officers in the East Palo Alto Police Department one
Saturday night in January, his tattooed arms broader than most people's
thighs, he rattles off the names of drug hot spots that his officers should
patrol that night: Sacramento Street, Buchanan Court, the 2000 block of
Clarke Avenue, East O'Keefe Street and East Bayshore Road.

It's going to be a busy night.

Up to six East Palo Alto police officers have been working overtime two
nights each week since December in the city's most troublesome drug-dealing
areas.

In a city of just 2.5 square miles, police have identified 18 so-called hot
spots.

Police Chief Wes Bowling unveiled the plan--dubbed Operation Hotspot--at a
City Council study session Jan. 15, and told council members that in its six
weeks of operation the team had made 15 felony arrests, seized several guns,
and confiscated a large supply of street drugs, including 2.6 pounds of
heroin with a street value of about $500,000, which police displayed at a
press conference the following day.

The special operation plan was put together at the end of October, Bowling
told reporters. Originally, it was slated to continue for just 60 days, but
Bowling said this Monday that the operation will now run at least through
April.

Operation Hotspot was launched in response to an alarming increase in open
drug dealing in East Palo Alto in the fall of 1997, and an increasing level
of drug-related violence. The violence culminated in 15 murders last year,
including nine people who died in a suspected arson fire at one house on
Fordham Street in April. That tally is the city's highest since it was
labeled "the murder capital of the United States" in 1992. That year there
were 42 murders in a city of just under 24,000 residents.

In 1998, there have already been three murders in the city, two of them
apparently drug-related.

Sgt. Alipio, who heads the operation, explained that his goal is to put
pressure on known drug-dealing areas by stopping the dealers and buyers from
loitering on the streets. Issuing search warrants for specific houses and
going after the big fish come further down the line, he said.

"The target is to keep the streets clear," he said. "We don't want anybody
hanging out. We want to put pressure on the hot spots."

On March 1, the San Mateo County Sheriff's office launched an antinarcotics
sweep in East Palo Alto, according to spokesman Lt. Larry Boss. This will
target street activity, while the county's Narcotics Task Force carries out
undercover work to infiltrate organized crime, he said.

Bowling said Monday that the sheriff's team and Operation Hotspot will
operate on alternating nights, so that the city's drug locations will be
patrolled three or four nights a week.

A Palo Alto Weekly reporter and photographer rode along with one of East
Palo Alto's police officers, John Norden, one Saturday night in
January--just before the floods hit the city--to witness Operation Hotspot
for ourselves.

That night, the six-man patrol team made eight arrests for violations
ranging from possession of rock cocaine to parole violations. The night
before, the same team netted four felony arrests and two misdemeanors and
identified several gang members, Sgt. Alipio said.

This is a chronicle of Saturday night's events:

6 p.m.

Sgt. Alipio gathers the team--himself and three other officers--to discuss
tactics and locations for the night's patrol. Each officer is to patrol the
five or six hot spots identified that night by Sgt. Alipio based on
citizens' complaints and his own observations. The officers will only meet
if they radio one another for help. Two more officers will join the team as
the night wears on.

7 p.m.

Sgt. Alipio and his team don combat gear and bulletproof vests, black
baseball caps and matching black jackets with POLICE printed in bright
yellow on the arms and back so that they can identify one another.

As we climb into Officer Norden's patrol car, he tells us that he was shot
at as he drove along the 500 block of Sacramento Street just a few days
earlier. I ask nervously whether there are any bulletproof vests left over
for photographer Joe Melena and me. Norden says no. There is only one vest
assigned for each officer. The best thing we can do if we're shot at, he
explains, is duck down so that the metal of the car protects us from flying
bullets.

Before we leave the relative safety of the police department parking lot,
Norden explains to us matter-of-factly that there is no shotgun in this
particular patrol car.

"If I get out of the car and get my head blown away," he says, "the best
thing you can do is hit reverse and get out of there."

I wonder to myself what I would do if there WAS a shotgun in the car and
Norden was blown away. I've never used a gun in my life.

I let Joe sit in the front seat, next to Norden.

Usually, Norden has a different companion in the car: an 85-pound Alsatian
dog named Niko, who can sniff out drugs and apprehend fleeing suspects.

As we drive off, Norden tells us that he has already worked 47 hours
overtime in the past two weeks.

"That's voluntary," he says. "I wasn't ordered."

Norden is committed to ridding the streets of East Palo Alto of crack
dealers.

"It's gonna be nice again," he says. "I've been working these streets for
eight years. It's the only place I've ever worked. . . . There's a lot of
good folks out there. There's just a few people screwing things up. And
we're going to clean them up, I guarantee it."

Pedestrians blink as Norden shines his spotlight into their faces as they
walk along the street ahead of him.

We drive west along University Avenue and cross Highway 101. As we drive
along East O'Keefe Street, Norden describes to us the gang friction that
plagues East Palo Alto.

The two main gangs, he says, are two Mexican gangs called the Nortenos (from
the north of Mexico) and the Surenos (from the south of Mexico). The
Nortenos wear red, he said, and the Surenos wear blue. He points out a
teenager in a baggy red jacket walking along the street. Just wearing those
clothes can be enough to get him shot, Norden said.

Another sign of gang members, he says, is tattoos on the hand showing three
dots or four dots. Three is the Nortenos' number, and four is used by the
Surenos. Some gang members have tattoos all over their body, Norden says.

He pulls up at 355 E. O'Keefe St. to show us gang graffiti scrawled all over
the walls of the apartment block.

There is a no-loitering policy at these apartments because they became a
known gathering place for gangs, Norden says. He and Sgt. Alipio stop and
search several men on the stairs. One of the men speaks little English, but
he repeatedly pulls out a large, framed photograph of his smiling sweetheart
from his jacket, as an indication of his innocence, I suppose.

"Most of the folks here are poor Hispanics working two jobs and waiting for
citizenship," says Norden. "They're scared. They're afraid to say anything
because they're afraid of getting killed. . . . They don't call us often
enough because they don't trust us. They don't even trust banks."

Norden says that there used to be as many as 50 people hanging out on the
steps of the apartment complex, but it's a lot better now.

"It was bad six to eight months ago," he says. "It was like a cat-and-mouse
game. We were chasing them but not getting anywhere. That's when we got the
extra overtime.

"Now they're afraid to be out here," he says. "We've been nailing these
areas real good."

According to Norden, the majority of gang members are from out of town,
mainly from Redwood City or Mountain View.

7:30 p.m.

Three teenagers walking along Clarke Avenue are our next stop. The street is
around the corner from Buchanan Court, a known drug hot spot where residents
allegedly hear gunfire regularly.

The three suspects smile amiably as Norden checks their driver's licenses
and another officer takes Polaroid pictures of each one of them for police
records.

"We're ID'ing everyone we find loitering," says Norden.

"We're getting so many complaints off Buchanan Court," says Sgt. Jeff
Justus, one of the four officers at the scene. "One lady called us eight
times last night. Now we can use the photos (to identify people.) It's just
another tool we can use."

Norden says the teenagers know him because he's stopped them several times
already. He even got a card from one of their families, he says. This time
he sends them on their way with a pep talk.

"The bottom line is it's gotta stop," he says of the gunfire.

"I know, man," says one of the teenagers. "I don't like it either."

8 p.m.

Two patrol cars are already pulled over with lights flashing as we draw up
outside East Side Market and Liquor Store on the corner of Clarke Avenue and
Bay Road, a notorious drug-dealing spot. A car has been pulled over for a
traffic violation. As police officers question the driver, they smell
marijuana. They find a joint on the dashboard.

On searching the car, officers find a tool for removing tags from clothes
inside a backpack and a handful of tags ripped from clothing. The driver of
the car--Dia Kareem Baily of Jasmine Way in East Palo Alto--is arrested for
possession of marijuana and burglary tools. The passenger of the car becomes
hysterical as her friend is handcuffed. "Leave him alone," she wails. Baily,
who told police he is unemployed, is taken to the police department for
further questioning. His car is towed.

8:30 p.m.

At the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Bayshore Road, a man and a woman are
swigging vodka outside One-Stop Market. An ID check on the man shows that he
is on active probation. In his pockets, Norden finds a crack pipe and other
paraphernalia.

Anthony William Scott, 38, of Hibiscus Court in East Palo Alto is arrested
for possession of narcotics paraphernalia and for an outstanding felony
arrest warrant. He is taken to the police department for booking. His
companion, known to police as "Gangster Pam" is released.

9 p.m.

Back at the station, suspects are being questioned and booked. Sgt. Alipio
tests several suspects to find out whether they are under the influence of
drugs by shining light into their eyes and testing their pulses.

He is pleased with the night's activities so far.

"I love it when the plan comes together," he says.

So far the night has netted two felony arrests and one misdemeanor arrest,
he says. "We'll have more than that by night's end," he promises.

While we are at the station, another arrest is made outside the One-Stop
Market where Scott was picked up. In the security of police headquarters,
news of each arrest elicits a thumbs-up and smiles from the officers
present.

10 p.m.

There are reports of gunshots at Jack Farrell Park on Fordham Street. As we
drive past the park, Joe says wistfully that he used to photograph Little
League in that park years ago. Norden shines his spotlights into the park so
that it is floodlit like a ballpark for a night game. There is no sign of
activity.

10:25 p.m.

Sgt. Alipio radios for help. He has just chased a group of six suspected
drug dealers from the corner of Laurel Avenue and Alberni Street into some
back yards, he says. He heard them hopping over fences, he tells us as we
drive up.

Five patrol cars, including sheriff's deputies, seal off the area and wait
to flush the suspects out. Norden, Joe and I wait on Laurel Avenue.

Suddenly, a man emerges from the bushes 20 feet away and runs down Laurel
Avenue.As police give chase, a second suspect emerges from the bushes and
runs for it too. Before Joe and I can catch up with them, the two suspects
are laid down on the street and handcuffed. Four of the six suspects are
caught. One of the suspects was only 16, Norden says.

"I'm really glad you guys are here," says one Laurel Avenue resident, who
tells Norden that the suspects have been hiding out in his yard in the past.
"They even tried to shoot at my dogs," he says.

11 p.m.

A fight outside Bell Street recreation center is reported; it's possibly
gang-related. We sail down University Avenue with lights flashing and sirens
blaring, sending cars scurrying in our wake.

Within two minutes of the call, seven patrol cars screech to a halt outside
the recreation center, much to the bemusement of the startled party-goers.
It turns out the report was a hoax.

Sgt. Alipio tells officers that things are starting to heat up. They meet in
the parking lot of McDonald's to discuss tactics without using radio space.

11:20 p.m.

As Norden turns from University Avenue onto Weeks Street, the spotlight on
the front of his car falls on a man urinating against a telephone pole by
the side of Hi and Bye liquor store. In a brief moment of light relief,
Norden tells the man that he won't write him a ticket because the punishment
for his offense is the loud laughter of the man's friends, who have watched
the whole scene unfold from the other side of the street. Norden leaves the
scene chuckling as the friends crack jokes about "assaulting a telephone
pole" and "concealed weapons."

11:35 p.m.

Three teenage occupants of a white car illegally parked at the corner of
Laurel Avenue and Alberni Street are searched. They are waiting for a
friend, they tell police.

Sgt. Bob Cole looks around nervously as we stand in the street.

"Right here, we often get bottles on the head," he tells me.

Norden tells us that in 1992, Alberni Street was "like Main Street USA" at 3
a.m. "It's nothing now," he says.

11:55 p.m.

Norden pulls over a smart white Neon Dodge on University Avenue, after he
sees the car pulling out of Sacramento Street, a well-known drug-dealing
location. He stops and searches the two passengers, a man from Sunnyvale and
a woman from San Jose.

"Did you buy drugs from Sacramento Street?" he asks the man. The man tells
Norden that he was looking for a friend who lives in East Palo Alto.

"Don't play me for an idiot," says Norden. "Why did you pick Sacramento
Street of all the streets in our city to look for your friend?"

Norden asks for permission to search the car, then sifts through the fibers
of the front seat with his flashlight. He finds tiny crystals of what
appears to be crack cocaine and a plastic wrapper on the front seats of the
car. Most of it is on the woman's seat.

12:05 p.m.

Norden reads the Miranda rights to Debbie Stokes of San Jose, who denies
that the cocaine is hers, but she admits that she and her companion bought
$60 worth of rock cocaine from two dealers in Sacramento Street.

She is arrested for possession of crack cocaine.

"It's his car and his stuff," she tells Norden. "He gave it to me. We was
just riding around looking for some more."

12:10 p.m.

The male suspect, Phillip Palacio of Sunnyvale, who is sweating profusely by
now, is read his Miranda rights and arrested for possession of crack
cocaine. He insists that the cocaine belongs to his passenger. He is later
found to be under the influence of a controlled substance, Norden says.

12:45 p.m.

As Norden wraps up the interview with the suspects and waits for a tow truck
to arrive on the corner of University Avenue outside the Drew Health Center
Pharmacy, it starts to rain.

Shots are reportedly heard from the Bell Street party that we visited
earlier. Alipio orders his officers to move in and close the party down.

Suddenly, we see two men running west along University Avenue toward us.
They disappear into a restaurant. Then, three police cars scream to a halt
outside an auto supply store close by.

Moments later, the two suspects are down on the ground with handcuffs on.
Two police officers stand over them with guns pointed.

Joe and I catch up with the officers just as they are bundling the suspects
into the car. We decide we've had enough activity for one night. But the
police keep on going. Weekend nights are their busiest time.

1 a.m.

Back at the station, Sgt. Alipio gives us the latest tally of arrests: six
felonies and one misdemeanor. It's been a busy night. "We've been hooking
and booking all night," says Sgt. Alipio with a proud smile.