COPS VOW TO APPLY DRUG-FREE ZONE LAW

New Maps Show Areas Around Schools Where Penalties Increase.

(April 10, 2004) -- Rochester police are using a well-known but
seldom-enforced statute to try to get drug dealers off the streets.
Drug-free school zones have been around for years, carrying stiffer
penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. For various
reasons -- such as not knowing where those boundaries are -- law
enforcement officials have not applied the tougher laws.

That changed within the past month. City officials used aerial photos and
computers to superimpose the boundaries around schools, mapping out the
1,000-foot perimeters. Six people have been arrested since then on the
enhanced charges, which up the penalty for conviction from a mandatory
one-to three-year sentence to two to six years.

"If (police) submit a felony complaint that alleges that charge, we'll take
a hard look at it and jack (the charge) up," said Assistant District
Attorney Thomas Brilbeck, who runs the bureau that oversees drug cases. "If
they find decent cases, we're all for it."

Police are trying the new approach in northwest Rochester as part of a
pilot program. The law applies to the sale of controlled substances, such
as cocaine and heroin, but not marijuana, Brilbeck said. Law enforcement is
only going after outdoor, or "open-air" sales, and is not targeting sales
near day care centers, as they could under the law, because of a feeling
that many day care centers are not easy to identify, said City Councilman
Bob Stevenson.

"We're staying well within the 1,000-foot boundary, so nothing can be
disputed," he said. Stevenson hopes the threat of stiffer prosecution will
be as much a detriment as the penalties. "We want to raise the level of
awareness. That's what we're after."

The six school-zone arrests resulted from two alleged undercover buys near
School 17; one near School 30; two near John Marshall High School; and one
next to School 7, Stevenson said.

The defendants are scheduled for court appearances soon.

Police Capt. Joe Davis, commander of Maple Section, did not want to comment
in detail, but said that the idea came from neighbors through a drug
conference.

One of those neighbors, Marion Walker, has been extensively involved in
trying to rid the area of illegal drugs. He founded the Jay Orchard Street
Area Neighborhood Association after the fatal shooting of 10-year-old
Tyshaun Cauldwell, who was killed by a drug dealer.

"This will add another tool to our arsenal," Walker said. "This has huge
implications for =85 people who get arrested for drugs in this area,
because there are so many schools in the area."

Stevenson estimated that the zones cover half of Maple Section, which runs
roughly from West Main Street to Driving Park Avenue and from the Genesee
River to the city line.

Local and state officials did not know when the school-zone law went into
effect.

Stevenson remembered when a sign was posted in the 1980s outside what then
was Jefferson High School, where he used to teach. "It was a big to-do,
then you never heard anything about it," he said.

Brilbeck said the sentencing portion was buried in the statute and
apparently not noticed. Walker said the law was "under the radar screen."

A warning to drug dealers: It's not under the radar screen any more.