The average passing motorist may not realize it, but Officer Mike Mervos and the rest of his squad are pretty sure they are sitting on a drug house.
Besides complaints from neighbors, the officers are seeing all the usual signs that something besides a fast-paced family reunion is happening at this apartment complex.
The car and foot traffic causes one officer to say, "It's like fishing in a fish hatchery. It's packed with vehicles and peds."
Mervos has been assigned to watch an intersection. When the right car leaves the area, a quick search on a laptop computer shows the registered owner doesn't have a license.
That's enough for a traffic stop. Even though it may not seem like much, the long-term investigations by this new speciality unit within the Yakima Police Department rely on small puzzle pieces like this to make the case.
The Proactive Enforcement Unit, which launched in early March, is designed to target repeat offenders and attack specific crime problems within neighborhoods and across the city.
Soon after Mervos finishes writing the traffic ticket, he and the rest of the Proactive crew -- Sgt. Kelly Willard and officers Andy Garcia and Dan Ross -- meet to decide their next move.
Because nothing will likely break loose at their first location tonight, they decide to swing across town to check on another house reported by neighbors to be a den of suspicious activity.
But that one doesn't yield an arrest or even a traffic stop, so the unit heads back to the station for the night.
Earlier in the day, they gathered intelligence on car thieves -- expected to be a primary target for the squad -- and now they will discuss their plan for the next day. Perhaps some plainclothes work, the sergeant says.
Some cops prefer to run and gun all the time. Surveillance and long-term investigation require a different pace.
Sitting in his patrol car as it idles next to the curb, Mervos says he doesn't mind the changeup after six years of being tied to the radio. Whether the job requires an adrenaline rush or wait-and-see patience, there's usually something good at the other end.
That's why he and the other officers applied for this job.
This is the side of law enforcement that television producers forget to show off -- the slow, tedious work that usually doesn't make the news or the scanner until the bad guy's already in handcuffs.
The Proactive unit expects to be using the handcuffs often in the months ahead.
Willard's squad will focus on car thieves, burglars and other high-volume repeat offenders and give them a taste of high-visibility enforcement. As Willard puts it, the officers will "develop strategies to remove those identified subjects from society."
The goal is simple: Imprisoned criminals aren't out on the street, so the city of Yakima becomes a better place.
The Proactive unit is the second specialty squad the department has formed during Chief Sam Granato's five-year administration.
It bears some similarities to the old Street Crime Abatement Team, which was disbanded when the department launched the still-active Gang Enforcement Team back in 2004.
The street crime team -- which Willard served on -- focused more on day-to-day activities: targeting a drug corner one shift, busting prostitutes the next.
The Proactive unit will be doing some of that but is expected to take on longer-term problems in selected parts of city as well as targeting repeat offenders.
Since the department's priority is on the patrol ranks, the Proactive unit started in early March with only four members. The other three officers chosen for the assignment should be on board by fall if patrol vacancies are filled on schedule.
In the first month of operation, Proactive's officers grabbed the top five criminals they had identified, either on existing warrants or new cases. Then they picked another five and started working on them.
Because some of those arrested have ties to ongoing cases, Willard didn't want to identify all of them by name.
But consider this example: Javier Hart. He's got more than one criminal case file for each of the 34 years he's been alive. When the gang team arrested him in 2005, he was packing meth, cocaine and heroin and had more than $5,600 in his pockets.
This time, the Proactive unit arrested him on a parole violation tied to a drug possession conviction. He's now sitting in the Yakima County jail for the next few months.
Then there was the case of Dennis Green, charged with trafficking in stolen property.
Police allege he coordinated the theft of a Honda motor that he then installed for a customer of his private mechanic business. Mervos used a database maintained by the National Insurance Crime Bureau to connect the dots in that case.
The bureau, by the way, ranks Yakima No. 9 in the nation for car thefts per capita.
"Our big objective is to reduce that stat for the city," Mervos said.
Proactive officers think they've identified a loosely acquainted group of perhaps a dozen car thieves responsible for a significant part of Yakima's auto theft problem.
But the squad has other interests beyond the theft of cars and their engines.
Willard estimates his officers will spend 60 percent of their time on enforcement, the rest responding to community service calls.
For example, the unit will cooperate with city code inspectors as a way to clean up blighted parts of the city's neighborhoods. Willard is discussing how to accomplish that with city attorneys.
Officers will also work together with the Yakima County Sheriff's Office's Crime Reduction Unit to address cases that cross the city-county border, as well as joining with drug and gang officers when appropriate.
As a part of the patrol division, the unit will respond when available to radio calls. For example, Proactive officers could, at times, be in a better position to make a quick, high-risk entry on a home containing a domestic-violence suspect -- a chore that could take several patrol officers away from beat calls for an extended period.
But their focus will remain on tracking and arresting busy bad guys.
Willard knows it's something of a cat-and-mouse game between the cops and the criminals.
He prefers the straight-ahead approach. So here's the short version of his message: If you're a criminal willing to ply your trade in the city of Yakima, he's willing to put you in jail for it.
"It's a great game," Willard says. "We have to follow the rules -- and they don't. That's what makes the catch so exciting."
Meet the team
The Yakima Police Department expects the Proactive Enforcement Unit to be fully staffed by this fall. Currently serving on the team are Sgt. Kelly Willard and officers Andy Garcia, Mike Mervos and Dan Ross.
• Kelly Willard — An 18-year department veteran, Willard spent 13 years on the SWAT team, resigning from an operational role in 2005 because of a training injury. He continues to work with SWAT as an adviser. He served four years on the department’s Street Crimes Abatement Team before returning to patrol and being promoted to sergeant.
• Andy Garcia — As a patrol officer, Garcia was known for keeping tabs on what was happening in his assigned district. He’s the unit’s only Spanish speaker and will likely be assigned as the liaison with city code staff. He previously worked for the Los Angeles Police Department. He has been with the department since September 2003.
• Mike Mervos — Mervos spent three years as a state probation officer in the Seattle area before joining the Yakima Police Department. That experience — as well as a knack for remembering names and faces, good street smarts and his SWAT experience — helped him land a spot on Proactive. He joined the department in February 2002.
• Dan Ross — Ross spent 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has strong tactical skills and has served as a guest instructor at the state police academy’s SWAT school, in addition to being a Yakima SWAT member. He has been with the department since January 2003.
• Ryan Pepper — He’s known for self-initiated drug arrests, has a good grasp of the meth culture and serves on the SWAT team. (A former semipro basketball player, he was recently inducted into Central Washington University’s Hall of Fame.) He has been with the department since April 2004.
• Mike Durbin — He’s the man when somebody needs a search warrant that will survive the judge’s chambers. The former Wapato officer also serves as a crisis negotiator. He has been with the department since August 2004.
• Ryan Urlacher —A former trooper with the Washington State Patrol, Urlacher was assigned to that agency’s Serious Highway Crimes Abatement Team in the Yakima area, where he gained experience in drug recognition and interdiction. He was one of the patrol’s drug interdiction instructors and worked with a drug dog. He has been with the department since April 2006.
* Mark Morey can be reached at 577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.
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