STATE DRUG ARRESTS RISE 7%, REPORT SAYS

Police Cite Greater Use, Beefed-Up Law Enforcement

More than 25,000 people were arrested in Wisconsin on suspicion of
drug-related offenses last year, a 7% increase over 1999, according to a
state report released Thursday.

The report from the Office of Justice Assistance also said that the number
of arrests for sale and possession of drugs in the state more than doubled
during the 1990s.

Police officials throughout the state attributed the rise to two factors:
an increase in drug activity and stepped-up law enforcement.

Throughout Wisconsin, police said, they're seeing more people using
cocaine, methamphetamine and even the designer drug Ecstasy. And many
police departments are pooling resources with neighboring law enforcement
agencies to combat the problem.

Outagamie County Sheriff Brad Gehring, a former president of the Badger
Sheriffs Association, said drug arrests and activity "have been rising
consistently for the last four or five years." His four-county area drug
task force has had to expand to 14 officers to fight the problem, he said.

"I think there's more drugs, but I also believe that the biggest thing
we're probably seeing is that there are more agencies, more
information-sharing, and that creates more arrests," Gehring said.

Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin echoed those views.

"I think there's more to it than simply the numbers," he said. "It might be
a particular effort by a couple of the larger drug units, outside of the
Milwaukee metropolitan area, that could influence it, to some extent."

'Reverse operation'

For example, in April, members of an anti-drug task force composed of
officers from area police departments and Hamblin's department posed as
drug dealers and arrested 17 people on charges of trying to buy drugs.

Hamblin described that effort as a "reverse operation" designed to
"discourage open-air drug markets and get a handle on where customers are
coming from."

Such drug-related arrests can artificially drive up the statewide numbers,
Hamblin said.

"I've never been comfortable with the term 'war on drugs,' " he said. "But
we certainly aren't solving the drug problem."

Mitch Henck, a spokesman for Attorney General Jim Doyle, said state
anti-drug agents link the increase in drug arrests partly to growing use of
methamphetamine and Ecstasy.

"You've got a more recreational culture there, with meth and Ecstasy,"
Henck said. "You're seeing more of a middle-class dimension with these drugs."

Madison police Lt. William Housley, commander of the Dane County Narcotics
and Gang Task Force, said his agency is seeing the same trend.

He said his agency sees heroin use "across all socioeconomic lines, ethnic
lines, age lines. It's not just one segment of the community; it's all
across the board. The purity of heroin we're seeing on the streets is
really an issue, also. It's pretty pure, which is leading to a lot of
overdoses."

According to the report, the number of arrests on charges of sale and
possession of synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine and Ecstasy, is far
outpacing arrests involving marijuana and cocaine.

The number of people arrested on charges of selling synthetic drugs rose
from 128 in 1999 to 205 last year, a 60% increase. Arrests on charges of
possessing such drugs jumped 49%, from 243 to 362.

Despite those increases, arrests involving those types of drugs still
represent a small portion of overall drug arrests, according to the report.

The report also showed that from 1998 to 2000, drugs arrests in Milwaukee
County decreased 20.5%, although arrests in the rest of the state increased
20.1%.

Housley said the increase in drug arrests outside Milwaukee County "doesn't
necessarily surprise me."

He said: "One of the things that could be driving the arrests is the number
of raves; the rave scene is a relatively new phenomenon. It's not uncommon
to make large numbers of arrests at those raves because the drugs are so
rampant. They're so open."

Arrests weren't up everywhere, however.

In Green Bay, Police Chief James Lewis said arrests fell 11% the last two
years, part of an 18% drop in all reported crimes in that city over the period.

Those totals, though, did not include arrests by the Green Bay-area drug
task force staffed by several law enforcement agencies. If arrests by that
unit were included, drug arrests would probably "be more flat than our 11%
reduction," Lewis added.

But Lewis said he believes there is less drug activity in Green Bay.

"We've only had one person hit by gunfire in the last three years in the
city of Green Bay," Lewis said. "I think that's consistent with the
reduction in the amount of drugs being sold actively on the streets. I'm
just using that as a pretty good correlation between street violence and
drug dealing."

Other highlights of the report:

- - Males made up 84% of all those arrested on drug charges.

- - Juvenile drug arrests increased 5.8%.

- - The substance in drug arrests was strongly related to the race of those
arrested: 80.3% of those arrested on suspicion of marijuana violations were
white, and 60.3% of those arrested on suspicion of cocaine violations were
black.

- - The Milwaukee County portion of total Wisconsin drug arrests decreased
from 33.1% in 1998 to 24.7% in 2000.