CITY WANTS POLICE LIST OF CRIMINAL 'HOT SPOTS'

City Officials Are Gunning for the "Dirty Dozen."

The Common Council asked law enforcement officials Wednesday to prepare a
report that pinpoints Buffalo's 12 most drug-infested street corners.

Once they're identified, officials hope to craft a more coordinated
approach for fighting the problem. They said the plan might involve city
departments other than the Police Department, including parking enforcement
officers and building inspectors. Some also raised the possibility of
asking county and state law enforcement agencies for help.

At a meeting of the Council's Police Reorganization Committee on Wednesday,
Masten Council Member Antoine M. Thompson said there's "great frustration"
in some neighborhoods, where he claims drug dealers set up shop on the same
street corners each day.

"If I have to, I'll go buy some drugs myself and have someone videotape it,
just to prove a point," Thompson told Police Commissioner Rocco J. Diina.
"I'm tremendously concerned about the summer."

Diina and other top officials said the department already employs numerous
strategies that target drug activity and other crimes in neighborhoods. He
said the Flex Unit and the Gang Suppression Unit have made many
drug-related arrests. He said the department holds weekly meetings where
officials review neighborhood crime trends.

Police officials agreed to prepare a report that will identify
intersections where drug-related offenses and other crimes have been most
prevalent. Fillmore Council Member David A. Franczyk said he thinks
more-aggressive enforcement near these "hot spots" could result in more
arrests and reduced criminal activity.

"Why not focus on the 12 worst locations? If we could identify the "dirty
dozen,' then create a 24-hour police presence near these open-air markets,
it would help," Franczyk said.

But maybe not for long, according to Niagara Council Member Dominic J.
Bonifacio Jr., who is chairman of the committee. Bonifacio and others said
such a strategy likely would result in criminal activities shifting to
other street corners.

Other suggestions have included enacting tougher loitering laws that would
give police more latitude in dispersing groups or individuals who linger
around known "hot spots," or installing surveillance cameras.

First Deputy Police Commissioner Crystalea Pelletier said law enforcement
alone can't solve the problem.

"These are great ideas, but we need a collaborative effort. We can't just
sit here and point fingers at each other," she told Council members. "All
the stakeholders have to be involved in a solution."

In 1993, the Police Department created a special unit called the Street
Narcotics Attack Program. Officers assigned to the unit focused on
responding to calls about drugs and guns in the street. But the unit was
disbanded a year later by former Police Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. He
said only one-fourth of the SNAP arrests ended up getting into court
because they didn't "stand up" once subjected to legal scrutiny.

The Council plans to invite county prosecutors and others to a meeting in
an effort to forge what some hope will be a comprehensive action plan to
curb neighborhood-based crime.