By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's corporate honchos are being hit up to help arrest drug dealers.

It's an unusual financial approach in the fight against drugs. But leaders of the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce say they have no choice but to seek corporate donations after a federal grant ran out this month that has provided extra police drug patrols in the neighborhood for 11 years.

Gone is the roughly $18,000 a month paid for overtime Cincinnati police patrols that in July led to 134 arrests, five gun seizures and confiscation of cocaine, marijuana and heroin.

"It's been a wake-up call for us," said Tom Besanceney, president of the chamber. "We definitely have to get back on the streets."

He's collecting pledges now from undisclosed businesses. He thinks he might have enough to re-start the patrols in 2004, but said he doesn't want to put officers back until he's confident they will remain in place. He said he needs about $80,000 for the rest of this year.

At the same time, the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority spent the last of its annual $1.6 million federal drug-fighting money, too. That funding, received by the agency for a decade, also paid for officers to work extra hours in low-income housing projects.

CMHA isn't making up the more than $600,000 annually that went to Cincinnati police. But it started a new non-profit push in an effort to raise private money to replace the rest, said spokesman Brad Beckett. That money had gone to pay for anti-drug programs, summer camps and school supplies - things to try to keep kids in school and off drugs.

"A lot of our residents are working families," he said, "and this was one way to help them with their kids."

Besanceney said the statistics of his Drug Elimination Task Force show enough success that it's not a difficult sell to businesses: 679 arrests between January and July; three stolen cars recovered; 13 guns found. Based on last year's statistics, he said, each felony arrest cost less than $100.

Tom Denhart, who owns about 500 apartments in Over-the-Rhine, said officers on regular shifts can't take up the slack because they're too busy answering other calls.

"Hopefully,'' he said, "the corporate world of Cincinnati will see the value in this."

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com