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Castor plan merges forces

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By JOSH POLTILOVE

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com

Published: October 23, 2009

TAMPA - With the city's crime rate plummeting the past six years - and the police department on pace for an 18 percent decrease this year - maintaining that trend could prove difficult.

But police Chief Jane Castor, who took the reins Oct. 1, has a plan she says will further reduce crime and enhance quality of life through a partnership with residents.

The department is merging three groups - the street-level drug squads, street anti-crime officers and district detectives - to form Rapid Offender Control squads.

The ROC squads will focus on areas with the most crime and calls for service in each of the department's three districts.

"By each district concentrating on its geographic 'hot spots,' coupled with a focus on offender management, we will certainly continue to reduce crime in our city," Castor wrote to her employees.

The ROC squads will work with patrol officers and the community and will be in high-crime areas 23 hours a day.

Each district will have about 40 ROC officers.

The changes, announced this week, will take effect in January.
Castor said she doesn't expect an increase in drug crimes with the merging of the street-level drug squads into the ROC squads.

"One of the things that I stress emphatically is that we are not doing away with any services," Castor said Thursday.
Castor also announced that the department's tactical lieutenants will be the contacts within communities. Residents will be able to call them about anything from burglaries to prostitution to traffic issues.

The lieutenants and their contact numbers will be announced later.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

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