Police say a task force that targeted drugs and guns last year accounts for most of the increase. But one neighborhood leader sees more dealers.
By LEANORA MINAI
Published February 25, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - After standing on a sidewalk and smoking marijuana, Willie James Anderson climbed into a car and rode away.
Street crimes officers stopped the car and found nearly 10 pounds of cocaine.
"That was actually being delivered for a party," said Sgt. Matt McKinney of the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Anderson, 23, was among 2,298 people arrested in the city on drug charges in 2003, the first increase in such arrests since 1999. The 30 percent hike reversed a downward trend.
"We just need to keep fighting it," said Theresa McEachern, 55, president of the Harbordale neighborhood association. "It's sad because I see so many young guys destroying their lives or losing their lives."
St. Petersburg police officials hope the newly formed Street Crimes Unit will curtail open-air drug dealing and lower violent crime in the city.
Last year, violent and property crime dropped from 20,914 to 20,485 reported incidents, a 2.1 percent decrease. The crimes tracked are homicide, forcible sex, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft.
"We're falling in range with other areas of the country, with a little bit of a reduction," police Chief Chuck Harmon said. "There's a lot of things outside our control like the economy and employment, which you look at for indicators of how your crime rates are going to be."
The number of citywide murders decreased by one in 2003 to 22, but Midtown saw an increase in killings and accounted for more than half the homicides.
When Harmon was appointed police chief in December 2001, neighborhood leaders complained that the department's drug enforcement strategy was not aggressive enough.
Drug arrests were dropping each year, 19 percent in 2001 and 8 percent in 2002.
In May 2003, Harmon stepped up enforcement after Cynthia Bethune, a 41-year-old mother of four, was killed by a stray bullet from an assault rifle. She got caught in the cross-fire of two rival groups fighting over money and drugs.
Harmon appointed a 90-day police task force that targeted drugs and guns. During the Gun Abatement Project campaign, about 320 people were arrested on drug charges, mostly possession of cocaine or marijuana.
Police say arrests by that task force account for most of the increase in last year's drug arrests.
Harmon said using arrests alone to measure the city's drug fight is a "double-edge sword."
"Making more arrests - does that mean there's more to arrest or you're doing a better job?" Harmon asked. "Using arrests itself is not the greatest measure of being successful. I look at community complaints and concerns, which I think we have less of this year than last year."
Chrisshun Cox disagrees. The president of the Melrose Mercy/Pine Acres neighborhood association said that despite the city's efforts, she sees more people dealing on the street.
"I have more drug boys in this neighborhood," Cox said. "I have no idea where they're coming from. Before, I would see five or six, and now, I can see 10 or 15, and they will be positioned on every corner.
"It's really getting organized to the point where they have the kids under 12 on watch out on bicycles to signal if there's a patrol car in your area."
Drugs were the motive in at least seven of last year's killings. The youngest victim was 16-year-old Fred Cookinson.
Police said the suspects thought marijuana was in the Childs Park house where Cookinson was hanging out with four others. The suspects knocked on the front door, shot and killed Cookinson and left with less than $200. Police did not find drugs in the house.
Pastor Louis Murphy Sr. of Mount Zion Progressive Baptist Church is disheartened by the amount of black-on-black crime. Of the 22 homicide victims, 17 were black. In all but a few cases, the suspects were black.
Murphy, whose church is in Midtown, said young men are turning to the street and bypassing a system that has deprived them of economic opportunity. Many come from broken families and don't have male role models. And, he said, they're not staying in school.
"You're talking about a people that are angry," Murphy said. "In many cases, they have an ill feeling toward each other. It's survival of the fittest in the 'hood. And when these guys get crossed, they'll handle it whatever way they want to. And they know they're in a game, and it's a drug game."
- Leanora Minai can be reached at minai@sptimes.com or 727 893-8406.
