IN EFFORT TO CUT HOMICIDE RATE, NEWARK MAYOR CREATES NARCOTICS UNIT

NEWARK -- Mayor Cory A. Booker and his police director announced the
formation of a new narcotics division on Monday to try to reduce the
city's stubbornly high homicide rate, firmly linking the illegal drug
trade to the persistent violence.

The announcement was made a day after two teenagers were shot and
killed during a gun battle in a housing project here. Those were the
fourth and fifth murders of 2007, after a year in which Newark's
homicide rate reached its highest level, 104, in a decade.

City officials have said all five killings this year were drug-related.

"It's clear we have a problem," Mayor Booker said. "This last seven
days -- we cannot avoid it, we cannot apologize for it." He was
speaking to an audience that included high-ranking police officers;
members of the Central Narcotics Division, as the new unit is called;
and the local head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Booker has staked his efforts to revive Newark -- where drugs are
openly sold in many neighborhoods, including Mr. Booker's -- on
reducing the crime rate, which has fallen since Mr. Booker took
office in July. The announcement had previously been scheduled and
was not in response to the killings, the mayor's office said.

The police director, Garry F. McCarthy, said, "The bottom line is
this: If we're going to reduce violence in this city, we have to
affect the narcotics trade." For years, he said, Newark had no
narcotics unit, in part because of fears that investigators involved
in such work would be tempted by corruption.

In the new division, steps will be taken to ensure that some
investigators do not have to remain in the unit too long, among other
safeguards.

The new 45-person unit, led by a deputy chief, will tackle the city's
drug trade as if it were a "ground war," said Mr. McCarthy, a former
deputy commissioner for the New York Police Department. After
identifying and taking aim at parts of the city with a history of
drug rings or narcotics-related crime, the police will try to ensure
those areas do not again fall prey to criminals.

"It's important that we go and get the bad guys before they kill each
other, and hurt other people in this city," Mr. McCarthy said.

The new narcotics unit will be staffed by officers who are promoted
to the rank of detective from other divisions of the city's police
force, and not new hires, officials said.

"No one has figured out a way for police to hold a neighborhood,"
said Peter C. Moskos, a sociologist at John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, who witnessed the effort to clean up Baltimore's Eastern
District when he worked as a police officer there from 1999 to 2001.

Mr. Moskos praised Mr. McCarthy's determination to find new ways to
measure the success of the drug unit: not only tallying arrests and
seizures, but also including factors like the number of guns
recovered or informants developed. But the challenge for centralized
units, including the new division, will be to make sure its
investigators are familiar with the neighborhoods they patrol.

"When narcotics squads bust into your house, it's not a pleasant
experience," Mr. Moskos said.

Mr. McCarthy stressed that the narcotics unit would work closely with
precinct commanders, who have been given more autonomy under his leadership.

Also on Monday, Mr. McCarthy announced that officers promoted to
detective would be recognized at special ceremonies, similar to the
ones now held in New York.

Speaking of the year's homicides, Mr. Booker said: "These men are not
saints who have died, but they are our sons. They are not heroes or
martyrs, but they are our children. Take away my tie, take away my
suit, and about 10 years, and I fit that description: young black men
dying in our city at rates that are unacceptable."