TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Residents Hope To Take Back Streets

ADVERTISEMENT

By KATHY STEELE

ksteele@tampatrib.com

Published: October 8, 2008

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - For weeks, residents say they have witnessed a takeover of their street corners by prostitutes plying their trade on Nebraska Avenue.

It has been an infuriating sight to many who spent years on nightly volunteer crime watch patrols to clean up Nebraska and thought they were winning the battle.

"They are there all night long," resident Glenn Cable said. "They are still standing on the corner when Hillsborough High kids come across the street. It's more than there's ever been. It's really rampant and out of control."

Police met last week with more than 60 residents to talk strategy at District 3 headquarters on North 22nd Street.

"We definitely are going to have a focused attack on this prostitution issue," said Jane Castor, assistant chief of operations.

Undercover police, posing as johns or prostitutes, will be used more frequently. Residents will be encouraged to report illegal activity directly to police squad leaders. Officers within two districts will work together patrolling Nebraska from Fowler Avenue to near downtown, and the department will train residents who want to join volunteer crime watch patrols.

Castor noted that in the past 90 days in Districts 2 and 3 there have been 77 prostitution arrests, 86 narcotics arrests and numerous street interviews of people suspected of prostitution or dealing drugs.

But she acknowledged that communication between residents and police has been inconsistent.

"I'm by no means saying we've done what we should have done," she said.

In recent weeks, residents have been critical of police response to their calls for help. They cited instances of dispatcher rudeness, no return calls when making reports and little or no evidence that police were following up on complaints.

"I almost feel I'm being dismissed," Rick Fifer said of calls he made regarding drug sales along Sligh Avenue and 22nd.

Bill Metler, crime watch coordinator for the Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association, said the meeting was helpful.

"I think it will open lines of communication," he said. "It gave us the opportunity to call to their attention we are not satisfied."

Nearly eight years ago, a small group of Southeast Seminole Heights residents formed "the exercise club." With two-way radios, video cameras and pet dogs, they walked Nebraska late at night and into the dawn to drive away prostitutes and their customers.

Other neighborhood associations organized crime patrols. The groups recently have been calling for more volunteers.

Castor hopes police in the next months can add a new tool to drive away prostitutes by going after their customers.

Courts knocked down a city ordinance as unconstitutional. But a revised ordinance is being reviewed that would again allow police to seize the vehicles of johns and levy $500 recovery fees.

Other cities, including St. Petersburg, recently have begun using similar ordinances successfully, Castor said.

"We've come a long, long way," said original exercise club member Frank Roder. "It's just so frustrating that as far as we've come, we're back where we were. We've got to fight it together."

Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7652.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT