HOW MANY INVASIONS ARE NECESSARY TO FIGHT THE DRUG WAR?

More than 400 times a year in Kansas City, police officers burst into
a building -- usually a home -- to search for drugs, guns and cash.

These raids are violent affairs. Officers ram open the door, order
everyone to the floor, and tear houses and items apart looking for
illegal substances. Neither a child's toys nor a grandmother's prized
possessions are spared from the hunt.

In urging renewal of COMBAT, Jackson County's quarter-cent anti-drug
sales tax, officials boast that the money has been used, among other
things, to shut down more than 7,000 drug houses since 1989.

The raids are conducted after police confirm drug activity, usually
through an undercover buy. Many of them do leave blocks safer. If
followed by code enforcement, they can make a dent in housing blight.

But before the COMBAT renewal comes to a vote on Tuesday, I think it's
fair to question whether it still is necessary to invade homes at the
rate of more than one a day. The Police Department's Street Narcotics
Unit operates two seven-person tactical squads, plus two undercover
squads. Without COMBAT, officials say, those resources would be cut in
half.

Maj. Gregory Mills, who oversees drug enforcement, said a decrease in
police activity would cause the drug trade to "grow exponentially."

Neighborhood groups, many of which receive COMBAT grants, largely
agree. I had to go outside of Jackson County to find an argument.

"These types of task forces have grown exponentially over the last 10
years, and we've seen no decrease in drug sales or drug use," said Dan
Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, an
organization critical of the way drug laws are enacted and enforced.

Last year a federal jury awarded more than $2 million to a south
Kansas City man who was shot by a police officer during a raid. David
Doran lost a kidney. Police were looking for a meth lab, but found
only a trace of marijuana.

A ruling by a federal judge this year raised questions about the
"no-knock" style the Police Department routinely used to break into
houses. Unless officers cite a specific reason for a no-knock search
when applying for a warrant, they must announce themselves and wait a
reasonable time for an answer. The department has changed its
procedures in response to the ruling, Mills said.

What can't be fixed through court rulings is the fear and anger
created by these raids. Not all houses raided are what we think of as
drug houses. Some belong to people who go to work, unaware a relative
might be selling drugs while they're out of the house.

Belinda Goolsby still doesn't know why the Street Narcotics Unit
raided her home on Brooklyn Avenue in 2001. An elementary school
principal, she returned from a conference and found her front door
broken in and her possessions strewn about. Police found nothing illegal.

Police said they made an undercover buy at the house. Goolsby said she
doesn't know how that could be. She never spent another night there.

"I don't even live in Kansas City anymore," she said. "Never
again."

The raids are only part of the law enforcement activities funded by
the anti-drug tax. They are an even smaller part of the $19.8 million
COMBAT program, which subsidizes dozens of treatment and prevention
efforts.

On the whole, I think the tax does more good than harm. I expect
voters will approve it on Tuesday. But that shouldn't stop leaders
from taking a close look at some of the strategies the tax is funding.