ST. PETERSBURG -- They were two of the biggest votes this year the City Council had to make, stirring up plenty of controversy.

Earlier this year, the Council voted to loosen the city's chase policy, so that officers could pursue motorists for not just violent crimes, but also some property crimes.

The other vote was to extending the city's drinking hours by one hour, from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.

So, how are they working? One, not so much. The other, quite a bit.

Police Chief Chuck Harmon told council members on Thursday that he's reviewed 7 chases since the Council approved the new policy. All of them, he said, would have happened without the new policy. So, it's had no effect he said.

The expanded drinking hours have had a huge effect on how the police are deployed. Downtown had a surge in calls that directed patrol to specific tasks downtown in the boozy early morning hours. According to the police, the number jumped from 14 to 228 between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. during the three month period after the expanded hours compared to last year.

Calls for service jumped as well, climbing from 245 to 332 during the same time period.

"We have a busier downtown between 2 and 4 a.m.," Harmon said. ?"We have become a nighttime cultural center. We're busy."

Harmon said he's had about 20 to 30 officers who had come in at 4 p.m. come in an hour later. He also said he's had to shift some beat checks at noon to early in the morning, and he's needed some overtime to cover expenses.

Major Dede Carron, who oversees the downtown district, said the extra drinking hours has led to about 100 extra overtime hours a week. She didn't have an estimate of what this will cost over a full year.

-- Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer

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-- Michael Van Sickler, Times staff writer