Drawing on federal resources to restore communities.

Just north of the city limits of Tampa, Florida, lies the 10-square-mile University Area Community (UAC). Unaffectionately referred to as "Suitcase City" due to the transient nature of its residents, the UAC has seen dramatic changes in the last decade. This area once offered an affordable rental community for blue-collar workers and students attending the nearby University of South Florida. During the mid-1980s, the demographic makeup of the residential population began to change, and many of the apartment complexes converted to government-subsidized housing. Additionally, the area became a major street-level distribution point for crack cocaine.

Into the early 1990s, virtually all categories of crime in the area registered marked increases. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO), which patrols the area, found itself tasked with stemming the steadily increasing crime rate and providing safety for the residents. The HCSO sought help from several federal agencies and, most important, from the community itself to address the area's growing problems. The federal agencies provided alternate sources of funding and some enforcement assistance, while community groups helped to identify trouble spots, prioritize problems, and acquire additional resources.

Weed and Seed Grant

In 1992, the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance - whose members include county law enforcement officers, local government officials, as well as representatives from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office - applied to the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting that it designate several locations in the county as Weed and Seed sites. Two years later, the Department of Justice officially selected the UAC as one of the Weed and Seed sites in Florida's Federal Middle District and approved funding for 3 years.

The Weed and Seed program extends beyond the law enforcement community. According to the U.S. Attorney General, "Weed and Seed has the comprehensive objective of weeding out crime from designated neighborhoods, moving in with a wide range of crime and drug prevention programs, and then seeding these neighborhoods with a comprehensive range of human service programs that stimulate revitalization."(1) In this program, law enforcement agencies focus on enforcing violence- and drug-related laws and establishing a community-based policing environment in the target area, while other agencies focus on educational, recreational, social, and economic development.

In 1995, the grant to Hillsborough County provided $681,000 for the Weed and Seed program. Of these funds, approximately $455,000 was designated for the seed portion of the grant, which the community used for social and human services. The remaining $226,000 went to the sheriffs office for law enforcement equipment and expenses. The sheriff immediately assigned two full-time community resource deputies to work on the Weed and Seed objectives in the UAC. These deputies came to play a unique role within the agency because they had been empowered to address law enforcement and social issues without direct supervision.

As one of their first projects, the community resource deputies became part of a Safe Haven funded by the Weed and Seed grant. The Safe Haven, located in several modular buildings within the UAC, provides neighborhood residents with a variety of services, including job training, medical referrals, and legal and emergency assistance. The deputies use the office in the Safe Haven complex as a base station on a part-time basis, as do county truancy and code enforcement officers. From this base, the deputies established an area business watch and assisted local residents in staging antidrug marches by providing security and identifying likely locations where drug dealers might gather.

In addition, the community resource deputies helped to establish a community policing consortium, named the University Area Law Enforcement Advisory Council. Members include activists from the residential and business communities who volunteer their time to exchange ideas, raise concerns, and alert the authorities to relevant issues. The council helps to identify law enforcement and public safety problems and works directly with local and federal law enforcement authorities.

Even though the UAC had become the focus of HCSO's most aggressive efforts, the sheriff decided the agency needed to take a more holistic approach. So, for several years, the HCSO steadily hired more deputies in its two patrol districts in preparation for creating two new districts to serve the county's rapidly growing population. The sheriff selected the UAC as the location for one of the planned new districts, but the plans hinged on obtaining funding for a building.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT

As part of the original commitment to provide UAC residents easier access to a fully staffed district office, the sheriff's office obtained a $1 million Community Development Block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This grant funded an 8,500-square-foot district office constructed on 5 acres of land previously occupied by a condemned apartment complex. The site situated the new district building in the center of the highest reported crime grid in the community. The sheriff's office broke ground for the new district building in July 1995, and upon its completion in April 1996, it was fully staffed with 143 sworn deputies and 7 civilian personnel. The new district enabled deputies to get right to the heart of the UAC's problems.

Local-federal Task Force Partnerships

Since 1994, two task forces that combine the resources of both local and federal law enforcement agencies have worked in the UAC. At first, only one or two deputies worked with the FBI's Violent Fugitive Task Force. Then, from 1995 through 1996, the entire HCSO Street Crimes Unit, which provides undercover and special operations enforcement in the area, worked with the VFTF for up to 2 weeks at a time. These joint efforts focused on apprehending fugitives wanted for serious felony charges. The FBI provided both manpower and technical resources and coordinated and supervised the task force. The U.S. Attorney's Office worked directly with the task force to provide effective and appropriate prosecutorial resources. Together, task force members apprehended 371 fugitives from justice.

UAC Crime Comparisons

1995-1996

Crime                1995       1996       Percent Change

Murder                  1          3            200
Robbery               156        206             32
Sex Offenses           95         95              0
Assault               905        962              6
Theft                1958       2188             12
Burglary             1321       1268             -4
Vehicle Theft         494        380            -23

Totals               4930       5102              3

After the district office opened in the UAC in 1996, a new joint local-federal task force adopted a different strategy. Rather than merely searching for criminals already wanted, the agencies took a proactive crime-fighting approach in the form of a Weed and Seed Task Force.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office and agents of the FBI, DEA, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms formed a partnership with HCSO deputies and detectives. The newly formed task force focused on three objectives-targeting upper-level drug dealers who supplied the street dealers in the Weed and Seed area, making criminal cases that met federal prosecutorial guidelines, and targeting firearms violations. The task force only pursued criminal subjects who lived in the Weed and Seed area, committed crimes there, or were indirectly responsible for crime in the area (for example, by supplying drugs or weapons sold illegally in the area).

In the past, local prosecution of serious and repeat offenders had shown little effect on the criminal element operating in the UAC. However, the mutual cooperation among the HCSO, the FBI, and other federal agencies reduced crime because federal prosecutors could obtain longer and more stringent sentences that kept repeat offenders off the streets.

As of December 1997, task force investigations resulted in the arrests of 170 subjects, 25 of whom were prosecuted at the federal level. The task force also seized illegal drugs, firearms, and stolen property.

An initial surge of federal prosecutions removed the worst offenders from the area. Since then, few offenses have met the federal prosecutorial guidelines, so the number of such cases has declined. The task force, however, continues to hold federal prosecution as an option.

UAC Crime Comparisons

1996-1997

Crime                   1996       1997       Percent Change

Murder                     3          5             67
Robbery                  206        173            -16
Sex Offenses              95         71            -25
Assault                  962        999              4
Theft                   2188       1894            -13
Burglary                1268        989            -22
Vehicle Theft            380        363             -4

Totals                  5102       4494            -12

Making the Difference

Initially, it was hard to detect the impact of the agencies' efforts to revitalize the University Area Community. For the first year, reported crimes in the community showed no significant change. However, in the second year, the number of reported crimes dropped nearly 12 percent, with the greatest declines in the numbers of sex offenses, burglaries, robberies, and thefts. Continued positive results have inspired deputies and residents alike.

HCSO administrators attribute the decrease in reported crime to the significant increase in arrests, a figure influenced by several factors. First, HCSO used Cops Ahead and universal hiring grants funded by the U.S. Department of Justice to hire and deploy more deputies in the area. Second, in addition to the Weed and Seed Task Force, a street crimes squad - consisting of one sergeant, one corporal, and 10 deputies - devotes its attention exclusively to the UAC. Further, the deputies who work in the UAC do so by choice. When the new district opened in 1996, deputies could bid for the district in which they wished to work. The UAC's reputation as the busiest area within the agency's jurisdiction attracted many of the most productive deputies in the sheriff's office.

This increase in arrests, in conjunction with the combined efforts of other area agencies in the seed portion of the program, dramatically changed the way the residents feel about their community and the law enforcement officers who serve them. Residents have indicated that they feel more comfortable reporting crime to the HCSO and are impressed with the way deputies and task force members respond to complaints of criminal activity.

Conclusion

Law enforcement administrators should take note of the strategy used by the HCSO in confronting the problems within the University Area Community. The critical first step involved understanding that law enforcement efforts in an area like the UAC require more than traditional reactive policing. At the very early stages of the new strategy, HCSO officials became involved in community groups that sought to address social, as well as law enforcement, issues. With community support, the UAC gained designation as a Weed and Seed site, which led to funding for key initiatives.(2) The sheriff continually sought alternative sources of funding to support the agency's commitment to improving the UAC.

While funding played a key role in the strategy to improve the area, the strong commitment made by the crime-fighting partners had an equally important influence. Only by working closely with other law enforcement and community organizations could HCSO begin to resolve the crime problems in the University Area Community.

No one can predict the longterm effects this multifaceted strategy will have on the University Area Community; however, early indications show promise for reducing the crime rate and improving the quality of life for residents there. Through the prudent use of available local and federal resources, agencies like the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office can have a significant positive influence on such troubled communities.

Endnotes

1 Janet Reno, U.S. Attorney General, testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, April 1993.

2 The success of the UAC's Weed and Seed programs earned continued funding for 1998 and 1999.

Major Perotti serves in District One of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa, Florida.

Sergeant Eisenberg serves in District One of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa, Florida.