Residents on path to take back their park

Officers host a cookout at Copeland Park to win residents' trust and rid the park of crime.

By JORGE SANCHEZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 26, 2000

CRYSTAL RIVER -- By day, Copeland Park is a pretty nice place to hang out, but after the sun sets, the park typically transforms into a less hospitable place.

Drug dealers often use Copeland Park as a site for selling crack cocaine and marijuana. Unruly teens also cause problems for residents by parking their cars in the street, blocking traffic.

Crystal River police and sheriff's deputies have long known about the illegal activities at Copeland Park. Over the years, numerous arrests and drug sweeps have taken place. But to have a real chance at cleaning up the park, police say the assistance of residents is vital.

To drum up community support, members of the Crystal River Police Department and the Citrus County Sheriff's Office hosted a neighborhood cookout Saturday. The mission was nothing more than to get interested residents to venture out and establish a rapport with law enforcement.

"It's important to make contact with the citizens. It creates interest and builds up relations," said Scott Grace, 29, a Sheriff's Office community resource officer whose district includes Crystal River.

Known in law enforcement as Community Oriented Policing, the idea is for residents of an area to establish a trusting relationship with police. Grace cited the progress made at Atlantis Arms apartments in Crystal River as a success.

"The problems here didn't happen overnight, and it won't be an overnight solution," he said. "We've just started to really focus on this over the past couple of months."

On Saturday, about 50 Copeland Park residents turned out to sample some wild hog and chicken barbecue, and challenge some deputies to basketball. Crystal River police Officer Craig Reese supplied the hog from a hunting trip.

Many of the residents said Copeland Park has its share of problems, but it has the potential to be a vital part of the community. The inner-city park is located just a few blocks southeast of U.S. 19 and State Road 44.

"I come here almost every day, but I leave at 6 p.m.," said Apollonia Barnes, 16. "It's a nice place."

Another resident, Sandy Weaver, listed some of the problems.

"Unruly kids, that's the main problem. They park their cars in the street and talk to each other. This blocks the road for people who want to get through," he said. "That, and the drug-dealing, is the biggest problems, but I don't think we're that much different than anywhere else."

Crystal River police Chief Jim Farley said he hoped the cookout would lead to better relations and improved response time by police.

"That is a problem," he said of Weaver's complaint about cars parking in the street. "But they're usually gone by the time we get here. Cars are a transitory thing."

Farley noted Copeland Park is a haunt of street-level drug dealers.

"The park is sort of open, and the problem is they can see us coming and they throw the drugs or whatever in the bushes," he said.

The Crystal River police will use a new weapon, a drug-sniffing dog, when the animal finishes training in a few weeks.

"That will help a lot," Farley said.

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