For a couple of years now, John Street has been pushing the idea that the city needs 1,000 undercover narcotics agents on the city streets.

To get that number, he's proposed redeploying officers from other areas in the department. And their jobs could then be filled by retired officers and maybe even city employees from other departments, according to a Street position paper.

Yesterday, as Street stood near an open-air drug market in southwest Philadelphia at 58th and Willows streets, he was praised by U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., District Attorney Lynne Abraham and state Auditor General Robert Casey Jr. for his ideas on fighting crime.

But when Street was asked how many undercover officers the city now has, how many officers he would be adding, how much his plan will cost and what areas within the Police Department will see a reduction in officers as a result of redeployment, Street backpedaled.

In short, the Democratic candidate, who has criticized his Republican opponent for a failure to be specific, fell victim to the same fate yesterday.

Initially, Street evaded the question, noting that he'll work with the police commissioner "on an aggressive redeployment program." He mentioned that some new narcotics officers might come from "Traffic" in the department.

Pressed for details on the number of narcotics officers now in the field, Street then said, "Well, I'm not sure exactly how many there are. I've asked that number and I'm not exactly sure."

He never addressed the cost of redeploying the officers to narcotics work.

Street also repeated his belief that uniformed officers "are much less effective than undercover officers" in the fight against drug dealers.

Both the Police Department and Rendell administration refused yesterday to say how many police officers are now engaged in narcotics work. They fear the criminals will get a leg up.

But a look at the city budget and five-year plan shows 406 officers at a cost of $16.9 million in the narcotics bureau plus six civilian clerks for $157,000.

In addition, the city beefed up its narcotics strike force from 50 to 150 officers under heavy pressure from City Council in December 1997. The Rendell administration also created a 100-officer Rapid Response Crime team.

Because the strike force is counted in the overall bureau numbers, the total number of narcotics officers is about 506. But that doesn't include a narcotics intelligence unit, and in any event it's unclear how many are "undercover." Street's position paper says he wants to use up to 25 percent of the 1,000 undercover officers to work in areas cleared of drug dealers under an expanded Operation Sunrise program.

Yesterday Street said, "I want approximately 1,000 officers to be engaged in crime fighting in the Operation Sunrise program. I believe there are somewhere around 600 that are currently involved in narcotic activity today. I want to expand that number so we can get up to 1,000, maybe a little more. And I'd like to see a significant percentage of them deployed for stabilization activities," after the Sunrise program is completed in an area.

Asked if he was now saying that the undercover officers would be working through the Sunrise program, Street said, "Essentially."

Meanwhile, Street got a surprising boost at the school board meeting yesterday.

In his resignation speech, Board of Education president Floyd W. Alston thanked a variety of people he met during 10 years on the board, notably Street.

"I have no qualms saying I'm in support of John Street," Alston said later.

Street, who has already raised more than $7.5 million in his run for mayor, hosted a fund-raiser last night that was expected to bring in at least $250,000 more.

The highlight of the $1,000-a-person affair was a largely symbolic appearance by national Democratic strategist James Carville, who won fame in Clinton's first presidential campaign with the phrase, "It's the economy stupid."

Carville, who has worked on numerous campaigns since then - including in Israel - admitted as he left the affair to head back to Washington that there really wasn't much he could do to help the Street campaign in its final week.

Caroline Brobeil, a Street press aide, said that Carville's appearance in Philadelphia was important because it marked a "strong show of support" for Street by the national Democratic party.

Staff writer Kevin Haney contributed to this report.

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