'DRUG PHONES' MAY BE PULLED

Covington soon may remove dozens of pay phones that were installed without
permission above city sidewalks and that have, according to police, become
a favorite tool of prostitutes and drug dealers.

"Drug phones" are what police and residents matter-of-factly call them,
because many of them accept incoming calls -- making it easier and less
obvious to arrange sex and drug transactions with drivers.

Under a proposed ordinance that might receive a vote from the City
Commission on April 29, all unauthorized pay phones in the public right of
way would have to be removed by June 1, or the city will do it.

"We're going to give them 30 days, if the commission approves the
ordinance, to remove the illegal phones," said City Attorney Jay Fossett.
"These people are basically using our right of way without our permission."

Cincinnati Bell phones are not targeted because they were installed with
city permission and the company, under a franchise agreement, pays at least
25 percent of proceeds to the city. Officials say the company -- unlike
some of its pay-phone competitors -- is very cooperative with police in
providing phone information about calls to and from its phones.

Cincinnati Bell also readily removes problem phones for police, city
officials said.

Meanwhile, phones installed by several other companies have proliferated:

. Five pay phones hang along Madison Avenue between Eighth and Ninth
streets, "only one of which was authorized," Fossett said.

. The area of Covington north of 16th Street and east of Interstate 75 has
43 of the phones, only 19 of them authorized, Fossett said.

. Some phones are next to the authorized competition. In front of Speedy
Refund Income Tax Service near Seventh and Madison, a Cincinnati Bell phone
and one owned by Greg Hart Communications Inc. face each other across the
12-foot width of city sidewalk, like gunslingers about to draw.

Hart Communications, based in Batavia, Ohio, has 40 to 50 pay phones in the
city.

Commissioner Alex Edmondson told Hart at a commission meeting Tuesday that
he considered the phones' unauthorized installation "shocking -- to say the
least."

"Let's think about if I decided one day to open up a hot dog stand on the
sidewalk right outside Skyline without a permit," Edmondson said after the
meeting.

In an interview, Hart noted the phones are typically attached to buildings,
and said he didn't consider that an infringement on city property. Fossett
said all air space above the sidewalks counts.

Edmondson and others were irked that unlike Cincinnati Bell, which paid a
high of $26,303 in 1998 from pay-phone proceeds as part of its franchise
agreement with the city, the unauthorized competitors have sent little to
the city and have no agreements with it.

Cincinnati Bell's annual payment to the city dropped to $11,556 last year
because of increased cellular phone use and, possibly, because of
competition from other pay phones, said city Finance Director Bob Due.

Harold Jetter Jr. of the Kentucky Pay Phone Association said Covington
receives some money from pay-phone companies that winds its way to city
coffers via state government. Due was looking into that on Thursday.

"It looks like from 1994 through '99 we did receive some franchise-tax
payments," Due confirmed. However, "as far as I can tell -- we're still
checking this out -- but we haven't received anything since 1999."

Attorney Phil Taliaferro, who represents the Kentucky Pay Phone
Association, said he hoped the city would offer franchise agreements to
other pay phone companies, like it does with Cincinnati Bell. And those
companies are willing to give Covington a better deal than Cincinnati Bell
does, he said.

"My clients, a number of them who either are here or who want to be, will
pay for everything that is used," including credit cards, credit-card
collect calls, he said. "If Greg can get a contract with the city, we
believe it would end up paying the city tens of thousands of dollars more
each year than Cincinnati Bell."

City officials are also concerned because the unauthorized phones are used
for illicit purposes.

"The main reason is most of those phones -- I say most, probably all of
them -- are equipped to accept incoming calls," said Covington police Capt.
David Finan, commander of the patrol bureau. "It just seems funny that they
have phones where all the problems are."

Greg Hart said his company's phones "are all programmed for outbound calls
only. We led the way. Cincinnati Bell followed us."

They've been that way "since we've been in business, since 1991," he said.

But many phones checked along Madison Avenue, Greenup Street, Pike Street
and elsewhere -- owned by Hart's company and Cincinnati Bell -- rang when
telephoned Thursday afternoon. Hart was not available to comment about that
Thursday evening.

Hart told city commissioners Tuesday his company provides a public service
by offering an inexpensive calling alternative: "Not everybody can afford a
cell phone," he said.

But Finan had a different perspective.

"If you've got a girl who wants to be a prostitute, and she doesn't want to
flag cars down on Scott Street or Madison Avenue," Finan said.

"If we call Cincinnati Bell, and we tell them we need something done, their
security department is top notch," he said.

In fact, Cincinnati Bell often attends area police intelligence meetings,
he said.

By contrast, police generally get little cooperation when officers call the
phone numbers listed on other companies' pay phones, Finan said.

"We get a recording. We can't get anybody to call us back," he said,
speaking generally about the other companies.

Ryan Balcom, operations manager for Greg Hart Communications, said his
company has provided "call detail reports" from its phones when requested
by Covington investigators. "They've been successful in catching those
criminals," he said.

The company even offered to install cameras in its phones to help police,
Balcom said.