CITY NEEDS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO BEAT DRUG TRAFFICKING

The SWAT team in full riot gear seemed completely out of place along
the tree-lined streets of Huntington's Southside last Thursday.

So did the high-speed chase along 10th Avenue that ended with the
arrest of a 32-year-old man in connection with a kidnapping and
extortion scheme. But there was one element of the bizarre story, that
shouldn't surprise anyone -- the suspect was from Detroit and crack
cocaine was found in the car.

"There's a plague of crack cocaine in our city, and the majority of it
is being distributed from out-of-town dealers, specifically Detroit,"
Capt. Steve Hall of the Huntington Police Department told The
Herald-Dispatch on Friday. And we have certainly seen that trend in a
number of high-profile arrests in recent weeks.

Police acknowledge this is a very difficult battle. Crafty dealers can
sell their drugs for higher prices here, and they find it easy to set
up shop -- often using the homes and cars of local residents. Police
staffing reductions haven't helped enforcement efforts, but national
experts stress it takes a community-wide effort as well as police
power to make a difference.

Huntington added four officers Tuesday, a move that will eventually
restore some of the manpower lost to budget cuts in 2002. The new
officers will bring the staff to 84, still far below the 103 officers
the city had in 2001. The city needs to keep working to provide more
officers.

But other actions are needed as well.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has begun a promising new
program called Integrated Drug Enforcement Assistance (IDEA) that
coordinates police efforts with the work of community groups to reduce
demand for drugs through prevention and treatment programs. Pilot
projects are under way in Portsmouth, Va.; Allentown, Pa.; and North
Charleston, S.C. And new programs are being started in Mobile, Ala.;
Springfield, Mo.; and Pueblo, Colo.

Those cities have come up with some good ideas:

. Portsmouth, Va., and North Charleston, S.C., have both secured
grants to demolish vacant buildings that provide a haven for drug
dealers and drug use.

. Both cities are working with substance abuse programs and
faith-based charities to increase and improve the opportunities for
drug users to seek treatment.

. North Charleston has implemented substations and bike patrols in
troubled areas.

. In Mobile, four neighborhood forums were held, followed by more than
200 people gathering for a drug summit. The effort involved churches,
schools and other community groups.

City Council has been criticized in the past for investing too much
time on issues beyond council's jurisdiction -- abortion and gay
marriage, for example. Here's a topic that deserves discussion and
leadership.

We urge the Huntington mayor and council to look at some of these
initiatives and develop a comprehensive plan to deal with the drug
trafficking problem.