Pubdate: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2003 Sarasota Herald-Tribune Contact: http://www.heraldtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398 SARASOTA STINGS Police Are Attracting The Wrong Kind Of Business Chamber of Commerce officials like to cite the benefits of attracting high-income tourists to town: Once these upscale visitors see beautiful Southwest Florida, so the story goes, they'll want to move here and maybe start a business. The Sarasota Police Department's efforts to lure major drug dealers to the area, however, are probably not what the Chamber has in mind. In fact, police and city officials should rethink the wisdom of exposing the community, local residents and police officers to what has become a lucrative but dangerous sideline. As reported by the Herald- Tribune's Mike Saewitz this week, over the last three years undercover police detectives have worked with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to set up "reverse stings" based in Sarasota. In these operations, paid informants contact major dealers in this country and overseas, offering large quantities of cocaine. The dealers are brought to secret locations in the city where the staged transactions are conducted and arrests are made. The operations have been beneficial. Court records show that 40 people have been arrested on federal drug trafficking charges and many are now behind bars. Also, the stings have netted the Police Department more than $1.3 million, under state and federal laws that let police keep money and valuables seized from suspected drug dealers. This money has paid the department's costs of the undercover operations and supplemented its regular budget. The police have also donated a small amount to local nonprofits, as required by state law. Yet, police and city officials should consider whether participation in the stings is the best use of the department's resources -- primarily the officers involved. In most cases, these are federal matters -- drug deals that would not take place in Sarasota except for the local department's involvement. While the police should be willing to assist the DEA on occasion, Sarasota officers have enough crime in the city to keep them busy, without going out of town and overseas to solicit more. More troubling, however, is the danger to which these transactions expose local officers and, potentially, the public. While the detectives say the transactions and arrests take place at night and away from local residents, there's always the possibility that plans could go awry. A recent bloody shootout at an East Manatee shopping center, deputies say, was the result of a drug deal gone bad. Sarasota is not Miami, and few residents relish that city's connection with international crime. High-rolling drug deals are not the type of economic development that any community should encourage. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman