MUMPOWER'S ZEAL IS LAUDABLE, BUT CLOUDS THE BIGGER PICTURE

It's hard to fault council member Carl Mumpower for conducting his own
drug stakeouts in the city's public housing developments. Good council
members should do everything within their power to gather information
that will help them make good decisions and advocate on behalf of city
residents.

Some city officials say Mumpower is meddling in police investigations
and overstepping his boundaries as a policymaker.

As long as he gathers information and abides by the city charter,
which forbids council members from individually attempting to direct
or bully city staff in the performance of their jobs, Mumpower is not
overstepping his bounds. He's just doing his job.

If he interferes with police operations, disrupts police
investigations or somehow endangers police officers through his
activities, that's another matter. But any citizen has the right to
sit on a street corner in his car and observe what goes on nearby.

It's also not possible to find fault with Mumpower's efforts to draw
attention to the drug problem in Asheville. Like virtually every other
city in America, Asheville is plagued with drugs and the crime
associated with them. That crime disproportionately affects people who
live in public housing where Mumpower focuses his observations.

Drugs are an insidious societal disease, robbing users of their future
and sometimes their lives, robbing communities of vast resources, and
robbing many law-abiding citizens of their sense of security. Mumpower
deserves praise and appreciation for his unrelenting crusade against
them. He organized and chairs the Asheville-Buncombe Drug Commission,
an impressive group of community leaders dedicated to "preventing and
addressing the causes and consequences of hard drugs in our
community." He spends his free time holding "community days" in public
housing, giving out basketballs, cleaning up litter and other such
activities.

It is, however, possible to fault his conclusions about who to blame
for the problem. Mumpower wants to blame council and the Asheville
Police Department for not doing enough to combat drugs.

However, statistics released by the department earlier this week
showed that Asheville police made 127 drug arrests per 10,000 in
population in 2005, the highest drug arrest rate among any of the
state's other 10 largest cities. Mumpower's reaction: It simply shows
"we're failing a little less." In October 2004, Police Chief Bill
Hogan created a dedicated Drug Suppression Unit.

Since that time felony drug arrests have increased 40 percent. These
are not statistics from a department that is "complacent," as Mumpower
has charged.

No matter how many arrests police make, their efforts will have little
deterrent value if drug dealers see the police as more of a nuisance
than a real threat to their livelihood. Many of those arrested for
drug crimes are bonded out and back on the street before the arresting
officers can complete the paperwork, criminal justice officials say.

Once they come to court, short sentences for drug felonies under
structured sentencing, a shortage of prison beds and an under-funded
court system conspire to put drug dealers back in circulation in a
matter of weeks or months, said District Attorney Ron Moore.

Mumpower's efforts are to be commended because they keep the problem
before the public and encourage us to continue trying to find
solutions. But overcoming the scourge of drugs will take more than
increasing the number of police officers in public housing, where
about 41 percent of drug arrests are made.

That means the other 59 percent are made in other neighborhoods
throughout the city. Societal ills such as poverty, school dropouts
and dysfunctional families contribute to the problem.

From a law enforcement standpoint, Mumpower needs to look at the big
picture and direct more of his efforts toward state lawmakers, who
control the sentencing structure and the purse strings for the court
system.