CRIME SPURT PUTS DETECTIVES ON EXTRA DAYS

Responding to a recent surge in shootings and murders in New York City, the
Police Department has ordered all detectives in the narcotics division to
work six-day weeks, possibly until the end of the year.

"This is a response to a recent spike in shooting incidents following Sept.
11," said Thomas Antenen, a police spokesman. "We will key in on the
precincts where we have increased criminal activity."

In the four-week period ending Nov. 25, shootings were up 36.7 percent, to
160 from 117, compared with the same period a year ago. Murders were up 25
percent, to 55 from 44, over that same period.

Investigators said the primary purpose of forcing narcotics detectives to
work an extra day was to flood high-crime areas that have drug problems and
related violence with plainclothes officers, which could bolster arrest
tallies and curtail the surge in shootings.

The first overtime tours start today. The plan was formed earlier this week
and narcotics commanders were informed of it on Wednesday.

Many detectives have already begun grumbling to their union about the
mandatory sixth day, in part because most of them will be assigned to work
the night shift, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Many also say that they have been
worn thin by overtime in the wake of Sept. 11.

"The mayor and the police commissioner would not want their tenure to end
with increased crime — and I wouldn't want it, either, if I was them — so
they are addressing a situation that requires attention," said Thomas J.
Scotto, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, the union that
represents detectives. "The other part, however, is that these people are
exhausted, and that must be taken into consideration. They are stretching
these guys to the limit."

Department officials said the six-day workweek was a further outgrowth of
announcements that Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik made last week, in
which he said he would take narcotics, warrant and gang units from World
Trade Center duties and return them to normal assignments.

There are about 3,000 people assigned to the narcotics division. About
three-quarters of them are detectives who will begin working the sixth day.

Narcotics supervisors in the upper ranks said they anticipated that they,
too, would be asked to work six days in order to supervise the detectives.

"The guys are tired," one supervisor said. "They're going to do it, but it
is a strain."

Some narcotics supervisors said that they may have to use different methods
on the overtime tours because there may not be enough undercover detectives
to make drug buys, which have been the staple of street-level narcotics
enforcement in recent years.

Instead, many of the detectives plan to observe drug sales without
participating in them, and arrest buyers and sellers.

Mr. Kerik has also said that he plans to reintroduce Operation Condor, a
program in which officers are paid overtime to work a six-day week in
high-crime areas.

But Condor assignments are generally voluntary and are not exclusively drug
operations. They include a range of enforcement efforts for both uniformed
and plainclothes officers.

The department has not yet calculated how the reassignments will affect
overtime costs, but the Police Department had said earlier that it expected
to pay up to $1.7 billion in overtime for this fiscal year.