DRUG ARRESTS DOWN IN CITY, UP IN REST OF STATE

Madison - Drug arrests in Milwaukee County dropped nearly 18% last year,
with arrests for possession of cocaine down by more than one-third,
according to a state report released Monday.

The county's drop in drug arrests prompted the overall state figure to
decrease by 0.5% in 1999, the first decline in nearly a decade, the report
said. That compares with an increase of 9.4% statewide from 1998 to 1999.

Attorney General James Doyle said he hoped the decline represents a
decrease in drug activity. However, he remained wary of trying to interpret
the latest crime and arrest statistics, particularly in Milwaukee County.

"I never want to make too much out of one year's statistics, but I hope to
some degree it is a decline, as in other criminal activity, an actual
decline in the amount of drug activity," he said.

Doyle said he believes the Milwaukee metro area drug task force has been
concentrating heavily on major drug dealing.

"So I think there has been some change in priority over the last couple of
years to really focus on the bigger cases," Doyle said.

Doyle said he wanted to see statistics for 2000 before drawing any firm
conclusions, "but as with other criminal activity, there's been generally a
decrease in the state of Wisconsin."

In 1999, there were 6,426 drug-related arrests in Milwaukee County, 17.6%
lower than the previous year, according to the report from the Wisconsin
Office of Justice Assistance. In the city of Milwaukee alone, the total was
4,736, a drop of nearly 19%, the report said.

Neither Milwaukee Police Chief Arthur Jones nor his spokeswoman, Karen
Pride Garvin, was available for comment on the latest figures Monday.

Tom Eversen, who compiled the statistics for the state, said the number of
drug-related arrests for both adults and juveniles declined last year in
the city of Milwaukee.

But, like Doyle, Eversen said it's too soon to suggest that Wisconsin may
be winning the war on drugs.

"With drugs, it's sort of like drunk driving," he said. "I'm sure the
arrests represent a pretty small part of the behavior going on out there."

While drug arrests were down in Milwaukee County, they increased by 7.9% in
the rest of the state - from 15,762 in 1998 to 17,009 in 1999.

Doyle said part of the reason for that increase may be due to greater
cooperation among law enforcement agencies - particularly among those
trying to deal with the methamphetamine problems in western Wisconsin.

"It has always been good, but it's gotten even better," he said. "And it
also particularly, I think, reflects the efforts made at methamphetamine,
which has not been a southeast Wisconsin problem, but is one that has
affected much of the western part of the state."

Arrests for possession of synthetics or manufactured drugs, such has
methamphetamine, increased considerably in other parts of the state,
according to the report. Overall possession arrests were up more than 42%,
according to the report.

"The enforcement activity certainly has stepped up, and the task force
activity has stepped up in many areas of the state," Doyle said.

"Methamphetamine, the challenge of it and the work that has been done, also
has a significant spillover into other drugs," he said. "We've had task
forces at work in areas of the state directed primarily at methamphetamine,
but they don't turn their back on other drug cases as they find them.
Because of methamphetamine, there really has been a more intense effort in
various areas of the state."