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The street has eyes

Residents patrol the 34th Street corridor to deter prostitution and drugs.

By CASEY CORA
Published April 1, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - As crime fighting techniques go, sitting in a parking lot dressed in a canary-yellow T-shirt isn't as daring as real police work.

But 69-year-old Lou Del Prete says it works.

So does the rest of the 34th Street Federation, a neighborhood watch group composed of a dozen or so residents dedicated to erasing criminals from one of the city's busiest roads.

"We're here to really agitate them," said Del Prete, a retired operations manager.

The 34th Street corridor, roughly from Central Avenue to 22nd Avenue N, is a dividing line, a bustling district between city neighborhoods where prostitutes and their clients cross paths with tourists.

Every Wednesday, Federation members - armed with cell phones, two-way radios and snacks - gather around the back of Del Prete's silver Ford Aerostar minivan.

Crime watches typically begin with informal briefings about local prostitutes and strategies to prevent their solicitations.

Telling the prostitutes' customers the Federation has their license plate numbers is one way. Screaming "We'll find a way to tell your wife!" is another.

The group, some of them graduates of the Citizens Police Academy, have made a hobby of staking out suspicious activity from the parking lots of 34th Street businesses.

It's never hard to spot.

Teenagers on bicycles act as crack cocaine couriers.

Prostitutes canvass intersections, and pimps traverse the sidewalks.

"It's a major problem in the city," police spokesman George Kajtsa said about prostitution. "Almost equal to drugs."

Police made 141 arrests for prostitution last year, many along a stretch of 34th Street N.

The criminal activity promotes fear in the surrounding neighborhoods, federation members say.

"A lot of people have fear of even calling the police," said Sandy Ewing, 52, a three-year veteran of Federation crime watches. "But if people don't say something, police think everything is fine."

That's exactly why Ginger Brooks helped found the group.

Crime, she said, was visible from the front door of her Central Oak Park home.

"I decided I'm not going to live in a neighborhood with prostitutes and drug dealers," she said.

Brooks, who has moved to Riverview, talked to 34th Street businesses about local criminals. Work together, she told them, and communicate. Police can't be everywhere.

The group says it delivers "MugSheets" - a collection of mug shots of convicted prostitutes - to local motels, hoping they will deny accommodations to prostitutes and their clients.

Some owners comply, like John Sharp, who manages the Days Inn, 650 34th St. N, on the second shift. Sharp said he refuses to rent rooms to anyone who smells like alcohol, appears intoxicated or is suspected of engaging in prostitution.

"It's about not accepting the little things," Sharp said.

Still, other motel owners turn a blind eye to prostitution.

Recently, the police department disbanded the traditional community policing model in favor of an expanded system, where police say every officer is now a community police officer and interaction with groups like the 34th Street Federation is more important than ever.

"We're having more contact," said police spokesman Bill Proffitt about the department's three new nonemergency community service hotlines. "They get a call back within 24 hours."

Lately, action has been slow during "the Fed's" crime watches. Members chalk it up to their watchful eyes.

"You can't eliminate prostitution," Ewing said. "But you can certainly control it."

Casey Cora can be reached at (727) 580-1542 or at ccora@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 31, 2007, 20:21:11]