BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- For a couple of hours Thursday, police cruisers swarmed the city, picking up as many drug dealers as they could -- and attempting to put a dent in drug sales.
More than two dozen people were snared and about two dozen others were being sought in the sweep, called Operation Safe Home III, which has been held once a year since 1996.
City police and the Butler Metropolitan Housing Authority (BMHA) work together to cut down the drug trade in public housing areas, using local and federal anti-drug funds.
"I think it is making a difference," said Sgt. Dan Pratt, police spokesman. "In the early '90s, the housing projects constantly made the news because people were being shot all the time. . . . Now we don't see that kind of thing going on much anymore, and I think it's at least partly because of programs like this."
Beginning in January, police conducted undercover investigations and made drug buys. They presented that information to a grand jury, which issued secret indictments against 37 adults and 18 juveniles, Sgt. Pratt explained. Most were charged with trafficking in crack cocaine, drug abuse, or both.
"When we first started doing these (sweeps), most of the people arrested were living in public housing," James W. Schneider, BMHA executive director said Thursday. "Now most of the ones doing the selling have moved to other areas, outside the public housing." Just before 4 p.m. Thursday, about 15 teams of officers, working in pairs, began driving through their assigned areas and picking up suspects for whom warrants had been issued.
"We've got the element of surprise on our side," said Lt. Steven Isgro. "With the element of surprise, it's quick, it's easy and it's over with."
Assistant City Manager Steve Sorrell, who went with police to watch the arrests, noted that residents showed virtually no animosity toward police -- a product, he said, of officers' efforts to establish rapport with them.
"I'm glad the police are doing this," said a 20-year-old woman who sat on a Front Street curb across from Riverside Homes, cradling an infant in her arms. "But these drug dealers just won't quit."
