Tacoma's Other Crime Area -- Eastside's Gang Activity Is Rivaling Hilltop's, City Police Say

Ron Fraser greets the never-ending stream of stories on drugs and gangs in the Hilltop neighborhood with a sigh of resignation.

A year ago in March, Fraser's niece, 17-year-old Brenda Harris, became the first innocent bystander to die in a gang shooting in Tacoma. She was shot by gang members who mistook her wave for the signal of a rival gang.

But Harris didn't die in Hilltop. She was killed on East 56th Street on Tacoma's Eastside - just down the street from her sister's home and not far from her own - where police say gang activity has been approaching Hilltop proportions for the past year.

The Eastside, however, rarely makes headlines. For example, while residents and officials are still talking about the shootout between residents, suspected drug dealers and off-duty Army Rangers last fall, Brenda Harris' name is rarely mentioned.

``It's just human nature to forget, as long as it's not close to home,'' Fraser said. ``I think they should be reminded. Whose child is going to be next?''

The Hilltop shootout in September continues to grab media attention. Last night, CBS devoted its ``48 Hours'' newsmagazine to Tacoma's drug problems, focusing on the shootout and the community-mobilization efforts of the Safe Streets citizens' crime-fighting organization.

Hilltop residents say they are as fed up with drug dealers as ever and are seeking more help from police.

Members of the Hilltop Action Coalition, a community group organized to drive gangs from the neighborhood, say now that the City Council has decided to hire 30 more police officers, Fjetland should reinstate four ``community'' officers he transferred from the Hilltop substation to citywide duty shortly before the shootout.

But Fjetland says that community policing in Tacoma will have to wait because the department is short of officers for emergency response.

``Community-based policing works. It's the future. But you have to get there.''

In a ``drug strategies'' plan Fjetland recently released for this year, the chief said he would focus on two areas:

-- Closing 319 suspected crack houses across the city, including at least 20 in Hilltop, with the help of Safe Streets and the Hilltop Action Coalition.

-- Dramatically increasing arrests of drug dealers by using undercover operations and police sweeps of drug-infested areas, employing officers on overtime.

But he says he will not add to the six officers currently based at the Hilltop substation, two of whom are assigned to neighborhood crime prevention.

Fjetland said patrol officers already spend roughly half their time in Hilltop, compared with the rest of the 48-square-mile city. In December alone, the 50 special police sweeps all took place in Hilltop, he said. None took place on the Eastside.

``We have pockets on the Eastside that are much more precipitous than Hilltop, in terms of potential,'' Fjetland said. ``The Hilltop is more of a media event than a reality.''