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Budget constraints may reduce the number of Clearwater police aides on duty, which has business owners and residents worried.
By MONIQUE FIELDS
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 27, 2001
CLEARWATER -- Clearwater Beach business owners can't believe what they are hearing.
Just two weeks after a brawl at a local McDonald's left one man stabbed and another shot, police Chief Sid Klein is considering reducing the number of police aides stationed at the beach.
Residents and business owners remember when Tampa gangs took up residence on the beach six years ago. They fear the run-in with young people on July 13 could point to future trouble.
"I can't have that on the beach," said Lou Piano, president of the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Although the aides are not sworn officers and focus primarily on directing traffic and addressing parking issues, business owners believe their presence deters crime.
Groups of young people often swell on the sides of beach streets, the business people say. Passers-by are then forced to weather a barrage of insults or cross the street before they approach the group, they say.
"That is not the image we want to portray," Piano said.
For one thing, it's bad for business.
"What happens is the quality customers are being driven off and going to other beaches," said David Little, who owns a retail center near the McDonald's in Clearwater Beach.
In the wake of the July 13 incident, Klein assigned the Community Problem Response team to Clearwater Beach indefinitely. One sergeant and four veteran police officers are assigned to the detail.
But Klein says he may have no choice but to reduce the number of police aides in the area.
Like all city departments, the Police Department has been directed by City Manager Bill Horne to reduce its salary budget by 2 percent, or nearly $350,000, to help balance the city's overall budget. Klein will make his final decision by Oct. 1, when the budget year begins.
"The Police Department consists of people," Klein said. "That's our product and service. We don't have the option or luxury of cutting things."
He said reducing the number of police aides on the beach would have the least effect on the department and on the city as a whole. The city also uses aides at the Clearwater Beach Marina, some city parking garages and at Clearwater Airpark, but no reductions are expected in those areas, Klein said.
Also, no reductions are planned in the number of sworn police officers serving the beach, Klein said. On a typical weekday morning, two police officers are assigned to the beach. On weekend nights, the number balloons to 10 to 15, police spokesman Wayne Shelor said.
Unlike police officers, aides can't enforce the law and don't carry guns. There have been as many as seven full-time aides and 20 part-time workers, but the number has been declining through attrition this year. Today, there are three full-time aides and 14 part-time workers. Those numbers will decrease even further if Klein can't find another place to make a trim.
Last year, 42 fights were reported in Clearwater Beach, according to police statistics. There were 54 drug complaints, 13 robbery reports and 19 sexual battery complaints. However, it is not immediately known how many of those reports reflected actual crimes, police say. For example, of the three reports of shots fired last year, only one was an actual shooting.
As for the fight in the McDonald's parking lot that involved as many as 24 people, Klein said it was an isolated matter.
"We're not having a crime wave on the beach," he said.
On Aug. 7, Klein plans to meet at the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce and discuss safety in the area. At that meeting, he plans to challenge beach residents to pitch in and help with patrolling the area as the residents on Sand Key do.
Residents would fill shifts, while the Police Department would provide training, uniforms and all-terrain vehicles.
"There are always ways to deal with with these budgetary situations," Klein said. "We can't continue to throw up our hands in the air and cry about the problem. We all have to get involved."
- Staff writer Brian Moore contributed to this report.