Community Deputy Force In Jeopardy

By STEPHEN HAMMILL Hillsborough County Community Deputy Program In Focus, The Tampa Tribune
http://northwest2.tbo.com/content/2007/jun/23/nw-community-deputy-force-in-jeopardy/
Published: June 23, 2007

KEYSTONE - Charity Arthur became a sheriff's deputy five years ago, but she still has trouble describing a typical day on the job, as each one brings something different.

'One day I'm on neighborhood bike patrol, the next day I might answer noise-complaint calls,' she said.

Some days she is locking up gang members.

Arthur became a community resource deputy last year. She is assigned as a member of a patrol squad, serving as a liaison between the community and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

'If a neighborhood wants to set something up, I'll help with that,' she said. 'I'll attend meetings and answer calls.'

Arthur works out of a community substation at 13260 McCormick Drive near Race Track Road and Linebaugh Avenue. The substations are donated to the county by the community. Volunteers come occasionally to offer a hand, but she is the only deputy there.

Forty deputies are assigned to the community resource deputy program throughout the county. In District III, eight deputies cover the following communities: Northwest (including Keystone), Gunn Highway, Baycrest, central Carrollwood, northwest Linebaugh, Upper Bay, Town 'N Country, Leto and Egypt Lake.

'They're the biggest liaison we have,' said Cpl. Joel Masci, supervisor for the community resource deputy program in District III. 'They attend neighborhood watch meetings, apartment coalition meetings.'

Masci has been part of the community deputy program for two years. 'We work with the parks department and with code enforcement,' he said. 'With a lot of problems - the homeless, littering - we have to be involved with code enforcement.'

The deputies run bicycle and safety programs. They track sexual predators living in their assigned neighborhoods. They form apartment alliances. After prisoners are released they visit their homes and check in on them.

The program may be in jeopardy with hefty budget cuts threatening all sectors of government.

'If we don't have the CRDs doing this, we have to rely on the patrol units,' Masci said. That means taking the patrols off other assignments, slowing response times to calls across the board.

Masci said some neighborhood associations have contacted the board of county commissioners to voice support for the program.

Arthur relishes serving Tampa's fringes. Keystone is a favorite area. 'Everyone there is so nice, you can tell they really care about the community,' she said.

'The Keystone community enjoys many benefits from our CRDs' presence, involvement, and close proximity to our lives,' said Tom Aderhold, president of the Keystone Civic Association.

'We appreciate having her out there, that's for sure,' said Greg Riski, director of the Keystone Civic Association.

'Our CRD is a real person and not just a uniform and badge,' he said. 'She attends our monthly meetings to alert residents as to recent criminal activities in their neighborhoods and advises on precautions they can take.'

'Our residents are able to discuss other neighborhood situations and explore solutions such as heavy commercial trucks going through the neighborhoods instead of using the designated truck routes,' Aderhold said. 'Our CRD issued tickets to the trucks and the activity stopped.'

Dan Linderman of Sweetbay Supermarket on Race Track Road called and reported spray-painted gang signs and expletives on the property. Arthur had the wall painted over within 12 hours to deter other gang symbols from appearing.

'The CRDs as a whole in this district have been devoting the last month to gang issues within Town 'N Country,' Aderhold added.

After a spate of gang activity was reported at Webb Middle School the community resource deputies were called into action.

'Prior to school ending, Deputy Chavez and I had been hanging out in Town 'N Country trying to identify the gang members we had pictures of because there were threats of gang violence at local middle schools,' Arthur said.

'We realized we had a problem at Webb. The gangs are starting out younger and younger,' she said.

The community deputies in District III participated in Operation Gang Out Saturation last weekend. During the course of two nights, 38 suspects were arrested.

It is often mixture of the mundane and the harrowing for the deputies. Arthur just wants the public to know it can do more than attend meetings.

'They see the happy, friendly face that comes to the meetings, but they don't see the other things we do,' she said.

With tax cuts looming, various wings of government will have to cut programs. At the Keystone Civic Association meeting last month, Arthur said the county's community resource deputy program may be in jeopardy. Her supervisors are hoping that is not the case.

A special session of the state Legislature held this month ratified a property tax-relief proposal that will force local governments to roll back revenue, with additional budget cuts of 5 percent in Hillsborough County.

If the county commission mandates that the sheriff's office trim its budget, it will have to go back and find more money, Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said..

'As far as we're concerned the CRDs are out there as first responders,' Docobo said. 'In terms of their effectiveness, they're every bit as valuable as zone deputies. They have as much impact in crime reduction as any other deputy does.'

If the demand for cuts does come, Docobo thinks the sheriff's department and its programs should be spared, he said. 'We're so understaffed as it is; it would really be a critical hardship,' he said.

Docobo said the sheriff's office's request for a budget of approximately $361 million for 2008 and 2009 represents a 3.3 percent increase, one of the smallest increases on record. It is a pre-emptive measure, meant to tell the commission that it should look elsewhere for the money.

He said as no decision has been made to reduce or eliminate programs. The sheriff's department held a special meeting June 12 at the Orient Road jail to discuss the community resource program. At that meeting no plans to cut the program were announced.

'We're in communication with the county commission about the situation,' Docobo said. 'Other than cutting personnel, there isn't much left we can cut.'

Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or at shammill@tampatrib.com.