THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150488
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Five state troopers will become part of a violent-crime strike force this week, targeting drug sales and weapons trafficking in Portsmouth's seven public housing projects.
The troopers, who began training in Portsmouth Monday, will join six Portsmouth police officers who are assigned to work in the projects.
The task force will be directed at the ``recovery of guns and drugs in the housing areas,'' said G.A. Brown, spokesman for the Portsmouth Police Department.
The troopers will work in Portsmouth for 60 days, or until about the middle of May. If successful, the program may be extended, as long as the troopers are not committed to another state police program, Brown said.
The state troopers will help fill a void created when Portsmouth Police Chief Dennis A. Mook ordered about 20 city police officers on Feb. 6 not to work part time for the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
A Portsmouth lawsuit maintains that officers who worked part time for the housing authority should be paid overtime by the city. That provision is what led to the termination of the program, city officials said.
Brown said the task force would more than compensate for the end of the housing authority program. The off-duty police as a group, Brown said, worked only about 24 hours each week in the city's seven housing projects.
The state troopers are full-time and will work many more hours each week than did the part-time city officers, Brown said.
The city attorney recommended that the housing-authority program that employed the officers be terminated until a labor dispute between the city and most of the police force was settled.
The labor dispute stems from a lawsuit filed by more than 160 officers on Feb. 3, 1994, demanding overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Other officers have since joined the lawsuit, bringing the total of Portsmouth police officers involved to at least 206. The city's police force is about 220 strong.
The lawsuit demands that the officers be paid for overtime work dating back three years. Some officers say they are owed up to $60,000 in unpaid overtime. The suit is scheduled to be tried in U.S. District Court in Norfolk April 24.
The Portsmouth suit is one of several that have been filed by police officers in Hampton Roads in recent years. At least three groups of officers in Norfolk have overtime suits pending before the courts. Police in Newport News were paid a settlement by city officials after filing suit several years ago.
Municipalities originally were excluded from Fair Labor Standards Act but were included after the law's boundaries were extended in 1985, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH POLICE DEPARTMENT OVERTIME WAGE VIRGINIA STATE
POLICE PORTSMOUTH REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY by CNB