Big Shake-Up of Police Aims at Street Crime : Law Enforcement: Scores of San Diego officers will be pulled from desk jobs and special units as department launches a new offensive.

In what is considered the greatest shake-up in the history of the San Diego Police Department, Chief Bob Burgreen is reassigning 102 members of the force to tackle street crime in city neighborhoods, specifically targeting domestic violence and narcotics deals.

The showcase of Burgreen’s proposal, distributed Thursday to members of the City Council, is the placement of 74 officers into a “neighborhood policing” program, which directs officers to investigate the root of crime in communities and have residents help solve it.

Nobody is being taken off patrol, but scores of officers--nearly 6% of the total force--are being pulled from specialized units, including homicide, criminal intelligence, vice, forgery, arson, auto theft, narcotics, a special task force investigating prostitute murders and other divisions.

In turn, many are being sent to high-crime areas in Linda Vista, San Ysidro, Mid-City, Southeast San Diego, downtown and other locations as part of neighborhood patrols, an idea that started in 1973 but has not been used extensively until now.

“The idea here is not just to hit them with law enforcement but add a total, coordinated approach on the part of the city,” said Assistant Chief Dave Worden. “We need more cops and don’t have them, so we are shifting from almost all areas. And this is a very significant shift.”

The “neighborhood policing” team will consist of 58 officers, 4 agents, 11 sergeants and 1 lieutenant. A new police academy class of 25 more officers will also be added to the effort when it graduates this summer.

In addition, four sergeants and 24 officers will be added to a special operations division that will add to the department’s efforts to fight drugs and domestic violence.

The narcotics teams--14 officers in all-- will join the neighborhood police patrols in fighting crime. For the first time, one centralized domestic unit of 14 more officers will be created to concentrate on a form of violence within families that has taken as many lives during the past few years as gang activity.

The extra officers come with a price, however, and will be pulled from just about every unit in the department.

The special enforcement unit, which targets mostly gang activity, will be eliminated and its six sergeants, three agents and 29 officers reassigned. Two officers each will be reassigned from the northern beach team, western beach team and harbor unit. The mounted horse patrol will lose six officers. Seven officers from the school safety program are being reassigned, as are five from a special school task force.

Three units--auto theft, fugitive apprehension and special investigations--will be combined into one and lose seven officers. A narcotics task force will lose six officers. The Metro Arson Strike Team will lose four officers and only two will remain. Criminal intelligence and homicide will each lose two officers.

Eight members of a special task force investigating a series of 44 prostitute murders will return after the operation shuts down in the spring and be reassigned. The vice squad will lose three officers and the forgery unit one.

The reorganization, first reported by The Times in June, was prompted by Burgreen’s call for more neighborhood patrols. For the past six months, the chief has examined every unit in the department, consulted with top administrators, and came up with a plan this week. He is losing two members of his own office to the reorganization, according to the proposal.

Even the Police Athletic League is losing a sergeant, and the Crime Stoppers/Crime Prevention programs will be reduced to one officer each. The police academy and the video unit will each lose one officer.

Burgreen could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Norman Stamper, executive assistant chief, refused to discuss the plan, noting that many of the department’s 1,855 officers had not yet been told of its details.

“They have a right to know first,” he said. “This is our professional family, and it is despicable that someone has been sharing family secrets.”

Officers have been edgy for weeks about the proposal, many fearing they may be removed from desk jobs and returned to the field. Burgreen’s plan does not specify which officers will take new jobs, when the assignments will take effect or how the officers will be told.

“In terms of total manpower, this is a pretty big chunk of the force,” Worden said. “It’s really a reflection of our change in priorities, the priority being that we have to target the violent, drug-related crime and to change our focus through these neighborhood policing teams.”