Tacoma Police Sweep Up Dealers

Drug dealing was on the rise again in the Hilltop neighborhood, so police decided to stage Hard Rock III.

After five months of undercover drug buys and surveillance in the area, officers made a seven-hour sweep Wednesday and arrested 25 people suspected of dealing crack cocaine on the street.

Earlier Hard Rock campaigns, in 1994 and 1996, together led to 111 arrests.

“We started getting complaints it was picking up again,” police spokeswoman Corina Hopkins said - hence the third campaign.

During the operation, police spent months videotaping crack sales to undercover officer Shawn Kelstrup. It wasn’t too hard, he said.

“When you drive by at eight miles an hour a couple of times and make eye contact, they know you’re not looking for a lost dog,” Kelstrup said.

The videos were shown to prosecutors, who produced 70 arrest warrants against 58 people, many of them with extensive criminal histories.

Police said waiting and making as many arrests as possible in one day is more effective than making individual arrests as the drugs are bought.

“They get a false confidence that nobody’s looking at them,” Hopkins said.