RECENTLY REVIVED POLICE SQUAD TRACKS CAREER CRIMINALS

A career criminal just out of prison started a minimum-wage job at a small
Kansas City grocery, but police wondered how he could afford a new $45,000
sport-utility vehicle.

There was his criminal record, too. He had racked up more than a dozen
felony convictions ranging from selling drugs to kidnapping, plus 20 pages
of city convictions. His parole officer thought the man stood a good chance
of breaking the law again.

It was enough to make the police suspicious.

So earlier this month, the career criminal squad began tracking him. If he
breaks the law, the detectives will pounce.

The squad's leader, Sgt. Eric Greenwell, said his detectives want to get
the worst of the worst violent criminals off Kansas City's streets. The
squad started about a month ago.

The FBI likes the idea. For the first time in the Kansas City office's
history, the bureau is assigning two agents to the squad full time.

"Fighting crime is a cooperative effort," said Kevin Stafford, FBI special
agent in charge of the local office. "We believe focusing on career
criminals is an important step in reducing the crime problem."

Not everyone thinks the concept can deliver.

Penn State University sociology professor Darrell Steffensmeier said the
idea is logical, but past research has shown mixed results.

Though he was not familiar with Kansas City's program, Steffensmeier said
there were three reasons such squads may not fulfill expectations:

* Police, to some extent, have always investigated frequent offenders, and
a specialized unit might just be "piling on."

* Many frequent offenders are juveniles who may decrease their criminal
activity by the time police have identified them as targets.

* Other criminals quickly may replace kingpins who are taken off the
street. "With these drug networks, you'd have to lock up a lot of people"
to stop the criminal activity, Steffensmeier said.

The department did not have a proactive investigative element before the
career criminal unit, Greenwell countered. Most of the people the squad
investigates have 10- to 15-year criminal histories. And it is focusing on
a few hard-core criminals who are worse than most of those waiting to take
their places.

The department started a career criminal unit in 1986 but disbanded it in
1993 to put more officers in community policing. There is a difference
between the units. The old one focused mostly on property crimes, but the
mission of the new unit is to decrease violent crime.

Members of the new unit were picked for their skills, such as computer
knowledge, undercover experience, and time on the robbery and homicide
squads. Greenwell came from the street narcotics unit.

The squad selects its targets from a database that ranks criminals
according to a point system based on categories such as previous arrests,
lack of work and reliable tips on criminal activity. The suspects with the
most points make the squad's list.

In some cases, the squad assists other units. Recently, while tracking the
grocery worker in his SUV, the squad got a call from Detective Tom Prudden
from East Patrol Property Crimes.

Prudden told Greenwell about a rash of burglaries and car thefts. Prudden
had information about a ring of suspects but needed undercover officers to
break the case. Greenwell's detectives immediately pitched in.

"It's happening right now, so we'll jump on it," Greenwell said after
hearing a briefing from Prudden. "Clearly, these guys are career criminals."

The squad eventually recovered $20,000 worth of stolen merchandise from a
business burglary. They identified a suspect but need to finish their
investigation before they arrest him.

The section's main focus will be career criminals. Greenwell said his squad
will watch and wait for targets to make a mistake such as using drugs or
violating probation.

The recent target, for example, had been caught four times carrying a
concealed weapon. If detectives catch him carrying a gun again, he could go
back to prison for five years under federal law.

"People in criminal justice agree," Greenwell said. "A small number of
people commit a disproportionate amount of crime. Just getting one of these
guys off the streets would eliminate a bunch of crime."