New Port Richey Police Send New Investigation Unit Onto the Streets

Their debut came during a roundup of in Pasco County.

In mid-June, members of the ’s newly created Special Investigation Unit arrested about eight people suspected of street-level drug-related activity in the city. The sweep came at the end of a months-long undercover investigation conducted by detectives from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and the police department, as well as members of other city police departments in Pasco.

It was the unit’s first operation as a team.

“And those are the types of things they will continue to be involved in weekly,” said Lt. James Steffens, who was recently hired as the department's commander of operations.

The special investigations unit was created recently during a department reorganization, police chief Jeffrey Harrington said in an interview.

“The incentive for this was that we could deploy officers in a more focused way that is proactive and responsive to complaints from citizens,” he elaborated in an e-mail. “This was about operational effectiveness and efficiencies that actually saved money as opposed to adding to the budget.”

The unit concentrates on specific ongoing neighborhood problems. These include illegal drug and prescription pill crimes, prostitution, crimes on U.S. 19, traffic violations, issues in Sims Park and gang activity.

The members of the unit are already employees of the department. They include a sergeant, three officers and two K-9 units. The unit members are relieved of responding to daily crimes to concentrate on recurring problems.

“You free them up from answering calls,” Harrington said in an interview.

The team will put members on the street in neighborhoods, network with other policing agencies, and use scanning, analysis, response and assessment. Commonly known as SARA, the method gives a framework for identifying crime problems and seeing if the solutions work.  

The unit was created as Harrington reorganized the department in the face of a lean economy. Harrington eliminated the police department’s captain position, the second-highest executive job. The position, which paid $71,000, had been vacant since October 23, 2009.

Harrington split the responsibilities between two lieutenants.

The changes saved the department about $5,000, Harrington said. The reorganization was completed about three weeks ago, Harrington said. The department now has authorization for 38 sworn positions, and two are unfilled.

Steffens was hired to fill the lieutenant of operations job, which supervises patrols and policing. He started May 1.

Matthew Berry, an officer with the police department since 1997, was appointed to commander of operations.

Each lieutenant’s salary is $68,000, Harrington said.

Harrington also increased the department’s sergeants from three to five.

“We knew we weren’t going to get more positions,” Harrington said. So the department had to use the staff and resources it already possessed to be “proactive.”

The special investigations unit is led by Sgt. Erik Jay, who has been employed with the police department for 14 years.

Jay was present when a Pasco County Sheriff’s deputy and a New Port Richey police officer fatally shot a felon in February. , awaiting trial for a previous offense, fired a shot at Jay, narrowly missing him, after Wilson and a car full of people had been pulled over in a traffic stop.

The officer and deputy were cleared in an official investigation by the state attorney’s office, which ruled the shooting as.

Jay said the unit has been doing cleanup following last month’s drug roundup and concentrating on problems on Main Street.

“It’s basic police work,” Jay said. “You’re just able to concentrate on it more” because of the extra time allowed.