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Tampa uncuffed

Growth turns New Tampa into a target

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published October 20, 2005

Tampa police administrators say New Tampa is still among the city's safest places to live, but it's a burgeoning community of homes, apartments and businesses. With that growth often comes crimes like auto thefts and burglaries.

So Maj. Bob Guidara, recently appointed leader over the patrol district that includes New Tampa, is putting four additional officers in the suburban community - two for the evening shift and two for the night shift. When they start their shifts in January, New Tampa will have 32 patrol officers and six supervisors working to keep the streets safe, Guidara said.

"As you build things like apartment complexes and businesses, you see more auto break-ins and car thefts," he said. "An apartment complex is like a mall: It's a buffet for criminals. This is an effort to stay ahead of that influx."

Last week, police said, 10 West Meadows residents had their homes broken into by an intoxicated college student wandering the subdivision before dawn.

Officers arrested Ryan Andrew Hallowell, a University of South Florida criminology student who waits tables at the Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club. He didn't steal anything, but he rattled the nerves of the affected families - including one that did not have the back door of its home locked, Guidara said.

"That told us residents are not taking the security measures we would like," he said. "So part of our job will also be to educate people in crime prevention."

In another sign of growth in Hillsborough's suburban areas, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue this week unveiled 16 new ambulances and three new rescue cars, all of them aimed at improving the agency's response times in areas like Thonotosassa, Town 'N Country and Summerfield in southern Hillsborough.

Fire Rescue last year responded to more than 72,000 calls, 80 percent of them medical emergencies requiring an ambulance. The ambulances cost $150,000 each.

Marshals from the Tampa office of the U.S. Marshals Service, whose territory stretches from Hernando County south to Sarasota and Hardee counties, helped local law enforcement nab another fugitive this week.

Polk County sheriff's deputies on Tuesday evening went to a construction site in Lake Alfred and arrested Christopher "German" Smith, wanted in the Aug. 20 murders of three men who had been eyeing his female roommate in a Milwaukee pub.

The arrest of Smith, featured in an Oct. 1 episode of America's Most Wanted, came a day after Polk County investigators met with members of Tampa's U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, said Marshals spokeswoman Lisa Alfonso. Marshals had pursued Smith for weeks, Alfonso said.

On Aug. 28, sheriff's deputies found Smith's car in Davenport. Two days later, the U.S. Marshals Service got a federal warrant charging Smith, 37, with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

On Monday, members of the fugitive task force met with sheriff's investigators and agreed to release a bulletin about Smith to local media. A resident recognized his picture on the local news and called authorities with information that led them to the construction site.

Alfonso said Smith had been working at the construction site since Oct. 3. He told co-workers his name was Kurt.

The Tampa fugitive task force has tracked down 230 fugitives since it was created in April.

Calling all neighborhood watch groups! The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday will host its semiannual neighborhood watch meeting, a gathering in which watch members trade success stories and share questions and concerns with sheriff's leaders.

The meeting runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Riverhills Church of God, 6310 E Sligh Ave., Tampa. It is free and open to the public.

For more information, call the Sheriff's Office community relations section at (813) 247-8115.

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 01:25:07]