WHY DRUG COPS MAKE US NERVOUS

To date, no one has been held accountable for the death of Pedro Oregon
Navarro, who died after being shot 1 2 times by Houston police officers in
1998. Harris County grand jurors indicted only one of the officers
involved-for trespassing-and he was later acquitted. In a civil rights
lawsuit filed by Oregon's family, a judge ruled that the city could not be
held liable for his death. On the other hand, as the Houston Chronicle
reported January 21, the civil rights suit did reveal that the police
tactic that led to Oregon's death-barging into his apartment at night
without a warrant-is typical procedure for narcotics investigators with the
department.

As it turns out, investigators elected to forego the use of a search
warrant not just in the Oregon case, but in every single one of 432
drug-related investigations conducted by the Southwest Gang Task Force
between 1994 and 1999, according to court documents. In deposition, former
Houston Police Chief Sam Nuchia said officers were instructed to "go to the
line, into the gray area" when it came to searches, seizures, and arrests.

Also deposed was Kim Ogg, former head of the mayor's anti-gang office, who
said the department's "zero-tolerance" crime-fighting policy encouraged
officers to rely on racial profiling rather than target past offenders. Ogg
met with some City Council members and Police Chief C.O. Bradford in 1997
to suggest changing the policy, but no action was ever taken.

Meanwhile, in Travis County, a December 2000 grand jury report expressed
concern about infringements of civil liberties during drug investigations.
"Although we were told that 'sting' buys and other undercover arrests are
legal," the grand jurors wrote to Judge Jon Wisser, "there are concerns
about entrapment issues as well as the use of questionable probable cause
circumstances such as 'appearing nervous' (emphasis added) or having a
tail-light not working."