BY KAREN BRANCH

 Police from Opa-locka to Little Havana shifted into higher alert Thursday morning,
 anticipating the potentially risky fallout from a 2 p.m. deadline to hand over Elian
 Gonzalez to federal agents.

 For all city of Miami officers, it meant days off were canceled.

 Plainclothes Miami detectives went on uniformed patrol.

 For Miami officers at the station serving the environs of the Gonzalez family home
 and for Miami-Dade County officers dispatched to Opa-locka Airport -- site of the
 custody transfer that never took place -- it meant 12-hour ``Alpha-Bravo shifts.

 But even before the shift ended, the county scaled back its troops.

 ``We're back to regular routine operations, said Miami-Dade Police spokesman
 Juan DelCastillo said Thursday afternoon, after U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
 told the world she would not send in federal agents to pick up the boy that day.

 ``Opa-locka's back to normal. We're not holding a perimeter. We canceled it at 3
 o'clock to fit the developments.''

 But Miami Police continued to divert traffic from streets two blocks away from the
 Gonzalez family home. They did not stop the foot traffic. Hundreds of
 demonstrators parked as far as a mile away to walk past the squad-car
 barricades -- many staffed by Miami-Dade County Public School officers.

 Chief Pete Cuccaro said he deployed 26 school officers to help block traffic
 access on Northwest 22nd Avenue and Flagler Street:

 ``When we take over those different posts, it's like a force multiplier to free up
 Miami P.D. to do the kind of things they do for crowd control.

 Miami Police spokesman Delrish Ross said Thursday evening the 1,157-officer
 department could still face a ``no-days-off order. Also in place -- for now -- were
 12-hour shifts for the South station that serves the Gonzalez family neighborhood.

 ``They're evaluating day by day to make that determination, Moss said.

 Officer Angel Calzadilla, a Miami Police spokesman assigned to the area in front
 of the Gonzalez home, noted that Thursday's precautions are just the beginning of
 the stepped-up police presence.

 In the event federal agents arrive at the house to remove Elian, Calzadilla said the
 situation could warrant a full ``Alpha-Bravo alert, during which all 1,157 city
 officers would begin working 12-hours shifts with no days off.

 ``It all depends on the demonstrators,'' Calzadilla said. ``I personally think it's
 going to be more of a funeral-like atmosphere, like a somber state, rather than
 dangerous. But if it's violent we'll go into Alpha-Bravo, we've mobilize field forces.

 Field forces are teams of officers who arrive on a scene, four to a squad car, to
 help clear a street. Miami-Dade officers employed field forces Thursday morning
 outside Opa-locka Airport.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald