Tacoma police have launched a seven-officer unit to combat gang problems and drive-by shootings that have riddled the East Side in recent months.

It also is working on a more permanent fix to the gang problem: resurrection of its PROACT teams (Pro-Active Response Teams) to address street-level and neighborhood issues like gangs, prostitution and drug dealing.

The short-term approach is not a full-time squad but the officers will work to root out and identify gang members. Lt. Kathy McAlpine, who commands the police sector that encompasses the East Side, has no budget for the gang unit but said the six officers and one sergeant, who started working as a team last week, will be paid with available overtime dollars and grant money.

McAlpine created the unit to deal with the current situation and to be ready for potential problems when schools get out for the summer.

“We are more vulnerable in the summertime with the warmer weather,” she said. “We don’t want to be caught off guard.”

The gang unit is part of McAlpine’s plan to combat the gang problems. The East Side has experienced 23 drive-bys through the end of April and nine drive-bys and shootings in May, McAlpine said. Two men have died in the gang violence in the past six months, and a third was seriously injured.

The plan also calls for increased communication between patrol officers and detectives as well as partnerships with community organizations and the relaunching of a gang tip line.

“We’re trying on the East Side to open up the communication lines, work as a team and see if we can have better results,” said McAlpine, who took over as the Sector 4 lieutenant March 13. “Gangs are very much a problem and will always be an enforcement issue.”

The officers will focus on the area from East 38th to 72nd streets and Pacific to Roosevelt avenues but could go elsewhere in the city if needed.

The days and hours they work will change so the gang members won’t know they are coming.

“We want to keep people off balance and not make a predictable pattern,” McAlpine said.

It’s a short-term solution and only part of what will help curb the East Side’s gang problem, supporters say.

“It’s what was needed,” said Tacoma City Councilman Rick Talbert, whose district includes the East Side.

“I credit Chief (Don) Ramsdell and Liuetenant McAlpine for doing what they can right now to address it, to address the concerns out here,” he said.

The community also needs to be part of the solution, said Edwina Magrum, chairwoman of the East Side Community Action Team.

“The community is going to need to come up to the plate to make sure the Police Department has the support from the City Council to make sure this is funded as long as it is needed,” she said. “We can’t expect the Police Department to do the job without resources.”

The two PROACT units were made up of 16 officers and two sergeants in the 1990s. Officers did not handle 911 calls but instead targeted criminal activity patterns.

“You could go and saturate an area,” said McAlpine, who was a PROACT sergeant from 1998 to 2000. “We could solve the issue a lot faster. It’s a great tool for a department our size.”

The officers checked up on registered sex offenders, searched for bank robbers and tracked gang members, McAlpine said. The department kept statistics on the teams’ successes at the time but those were not available last week, she said.

The teams were disbanded and officers reassigned to handle 911 calls in the early 2000s after citywide hiring freezes left the department with declining staffing levels. The department remains 15 officers short of its full staffing of 382 commissioned officers but continues to hire for the positions.

After a request from Talbert, Ramsdell recently proposed a new street crimes unit similar to the PROACT teams and a special operations vice squad.

The new units, which called for adding officers to the department, and their vehicles would cost $3.27 million over two years.

The street crimes unit would be comprised of nine officers, one sergeant and 10 marked and unmarked vehicles for a cost of more than $2 million over two years. They would work on nuisance crimes and target hot spots like the East Side.

They’d also work with other agencies, such as the state Liquor Control Board, tax and licensing, the community-based service delivery teams and the state Gambling Commission.

The vice squad would have five officers and one sergeant. With the addition of six vehicles, it would cost $1.2 million over two years.

“Our goal will be, in the future, to greatly reduce the crime rate in the city and the calls for service,” Ramsdell said.

Talbert said the proposal will be part of discussions for the 2007-09 budget.

He believes the new teams could be created if the Police Department gets back up to full staff.

“There is a cost greater than this in not trying to get in front of this type of criminal activity,” he said.

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com