POLICE SAY KEEP LAW ON BOOKS

Madison's Anti-loitering Ordinance Is About To Expire, But Police Want It
Kept Around Just In Case.

Madison police want to keep an anti-loitering ordinance on the books after
its scheduled expiration March 6 but don't intend to use it unless open-air
drug sales stage a comeback on city streets.

"We still have some open-air drug dealing, but drug sales have gone indoors
and become more sophisticated," Capt. Luis Yudice, head of the Dane County
Narcotics and Gang Task Force, said Wednesday. "In the early 90s, it was
waving people down in cars and using pay phones. Today it's pagers and palm
pilots and even personal computers."

The ordinance, which bars loitering for purposes of illegal drug activity,
was passed in August 1997 to combat drug dealing on troubled neighborhood
streets. Initially, opponents feared it would result in police targeting
blacks and ticketing innocent passers-by. The City Council extended the
ordinance in 1999, but it is due to expire March 6.

Police now hope the council will extend the ordinance for another year,
with the understanding that police won't use it unless street drug sales
enjoy a resurgence.

"We'd like to keep it in our bag of tricks," Yudice said. "The chief could
give the go-ahead to use it again at any time if there's a downturn in the
economy or a new drug comes in, like heroin."

City Council President Dorothy Borchardt, however, said she has warned
police that Borchardt council members won't approve an extension of the
ordinance unless police plan to use it.

"I'm not going to get beat up for something they're not going to use," she
said. "A moratorium is absolutely unacceptable. If they're not going to use
it, they're going to lose the votes."

Yudice was unavailable to respond to Borchardt's remarks.

A proposed one-year extension was introduced to the City Council Tuesday
night. The ordinance extension will be voted on at the council's Feb. 20
meeting.

The Police Department's stance on the drug loitering law reflects a change
in focus, Yudice said. The task force recently has turned its attention
away from waning street sales toward upper-level drug suppliers, as in the
Jocko's cocaine trafficking case, which sent nine dealers of powder cocaine
to federal prison, and the recent indictments of 11 people on crack cocaine
charges.

Police prepared for council members a report summarizing how they have used
the anti-loitering law since its inception. It shows that since 1997, the
ordinance has resulted in 207 citations. Nine were issued in 1997, 30 in
1998 and 114 in 1999, but the number dropped in 2000 to only 54, the report
shows.

Last year's 54 citations were issued during 414 drug-loitering contacts
made by police. The 414 contacts resulted in 135 drug-related charges being
issued, 85 trespassing tickets and 54 other charges, the report shows. In
86 of the contacts, no charges or tickets resulted.

In 2000, 76 percent of those ticketed were black males, 9 percent were
white males, 13 percent were black females and 2 percent were Hispanic
males, the study showed. In addition, 81 percent of the suspects ticketed
did not live in the neighborhood in which they were cited for loitering.