Above Photo: Flickr
Drug enforcement has warped and corrupted policing. It has also resulted in racially unfair policing as street dealing is often conducted in poor communities of color, while wealthier communities conduct drug transactions behind closed doors and it has undermined constitutional rights against unreasonable searches and seizures while draining the budgets of many cities. While refocusing police on violent crime is a good step, we need to put in place drug policies that reduce the harm to communities and people.
For people that means a health-based approach where programs like needle exchange, supervised Consumption Facilities where people can use drugs under the eyes of a healthcare worker and heroin-assisted treatment, where people can buy heroin at about ten percent of the cost of illegal heroin. This will prevent overdose, the spread of AIDS, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases, as well as reduce drug trafficking and criminal activity used to pay for illegal drugs. See Drug War Facts on Heroin Assisted Treatment, Syringe Service and Needle Exchange Programs, Harm Reduction, and Overdose Prevention Sites, also known as Supervised Consumption Sites or Safe Injection Facilities.
The Free Thought Project points out how the drug war has negatively impacted police solving serious crimes, Matt Agorist asks: “If you were murdered today, there’s only a 60% chance of police catching the person who did it. That number drops to 3% if you’re raped. 50 years ago, that number was much higher. What happened?” Then he answers the question by writing “In the United States, the murder clearance rate in 1965 was more than 90 percent. Since the inception of the war on drugs, the murder clearance rate has plummeted to an average of less than 60 percent per year.”
In my city, Baltimore, the homicide clearance rate was 32 percent, the lowest in three decades. Baltimore had 348 homicides in 2019, up from 309 in 2018. The record occurred in 1993 when 353 people were murdered, and has not seen less than 300 homicides since 2014. Due to changes in population, 2019 set a record of 57 killings per 100,000 people, the city’s worst homicide rate on record.The United States needs to end drug policy that is based on law enforcement, mass arrests and mass incarceration. We need to refocus by emphasizing health, education and legal regulation of drugs. Legal adult use of marijuana is supported by two-thirds of the people in the United States. Legal regulation of marijuana should be put in place as rapidly as possible. Harm reduction, emphasizing public health should be applied to other drugs. Various forms of legal adult use from heroin assisted treatment to prescription availability to state-sponsored distribution and sales should be considered for all drugs.
The War on Drugs has been a costly failure, it is time to realize that and stop repeating the mistakes of a failed policy. KZ
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Police Department is disbanding its narcotics unit.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne confirmed the change on Tuesday, with the department telling him that those officers will be getting reassigned to other units.
Atlanta police officials suggested the move is not abandoning the drug fight but about reducing violent crime.
“Absolutely, it’s a risky move,” a veteran APD narcotics officer told Winne, asking not to be identified. “I’m sure there was a lot of thought put into it. I don’t have all the numbers that the higher-ups in APD have, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
In a statement, the department told Winne:
“We know that the illegal narcotics trade is often at the center of criminal activity fueled by guns and gangs. The Department is de-centralizing its Narcotics Unit in recognition that the violence that surrounds this trade should be the focus of the entire Department, not just one team. We have had tremendous success at targeting the sale of illegal narcotics by tracking violent criminals and getting illegally-possessed guns off the streets.
“Violent crime and gang activity must be the Department’s primary focus and where we will have a greater impact on the crimes affecting those most often victimized in our communities.”
“I hope in the long run that this move is successful. I wish Atlanta the best. I hope it was well calculated,” the officer told Winne.
APD said homicides in the city of Atlanta for 2019, minus the last three days, were up 9% over 2018, and 19% over 2017.
Aggravated assaults were up 12% over 2018 but 1% over 2017
While robberies were down 1% over 2018 and down 27% versus 2017, the department said overall crimes in 2019 decreased compared to both 2018 and 2017
As Winne interpreted the APD information, the homicide rate improved 3% for most of 2019 versus the same period in 2018. The numbers cited for 2018 and 2017 would also be minus the last three days of the year.
Winne spoke by phone with a contact with the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and he seemed to think the change was good.