AUDITOR: ANTI-DRUG TACTICS FLAWED

Consider Decriminalization and Alternatives to Arrest, Minch Lewis
Says.

Decriminalizing drugs might be a way to cut down on the crime
associated with the sale of illegal substances, City Auditor Minch
Lewis said.

The Syracuse Police Department is spending an inordinate amount of
time and money addressing the drug problem in the city, but would be
more effective if its focus changed, said Lewis, who leaves office
Wednesday after two, four-year terms.

The report he's been preparing since April is his "last hurrah," he
said. He said he'd hoped to get it finished this fall, but it took
some time to compile the information.

Lewis, a Democrat who last year challenged the police department after
discovering chiefs and deputies had been paid tens of thousands of
dollars in overtime, has typically focused his energies on financial
matters.

Changing the priorities in drug enforcement would probably not cost
any less money but could produce better results, he said.

Statistics provided by the police department indicate that 6,300 of
its 28,800 arrests in 2002 were related to drugs.

"Even if we arrested twice as many people, we wouldn't make a dent in
the problem," Lewis said. "Every major city is struggling with this
issue, but the approaches we've all been taking produce the same
results. We still have high crime rates."

Lewis' criticism might be misplaced, officials said, as law
enforcement agencies do not make laws.

"We need to have a complete and comprehensive statewide and national
debate on drugs and the present drug laws," police Inspector Mike
Kerwin said. "It is a debate that has to come out of the closet, and
all of us have to participate. There's no question that has to occur,
but people have to understand that as a police department we are
duty-bound to enforce the law."

Many, if not most, of the neighborhood complaints the department
addresses focus on the illegal sale of narcotics, Kerwin said.

The police department, with an annual budget of $34 million, is "the
single largest unit of city government other than the school
district," Lewis said. "There's a major amount of resources going into
the drug problem, but no reduction in the problem of drugs. We're not
making progress. If we arrest this many people, is it working? We think not."

Lewis said he plans to ask the Common Council to consider alternatives
to arrest, including decriminalizing the sale and use of illegal
drugs; "harm reduction," which would provide safe and clean equipment
such as needles; and treatment and prevention programs.

The prohibition of alcohol should have taught society that making
substances illegal leads to bootlegging, violence, organized crime,
robberies and homicides, Lewis said.

Once the criminal element disappeared, "the violence connected with
the distribution system disappeared," Lewis said.

State politicians from both parties have said changes should be made
to the drug laws in New York state, but they cannot agree to what
degree they should be changed. One major dispute is over the diversion
of defendants to treatment and whether it should be up to judges or
district attorneys to make that determination.

Gov. George Pataki and state Senate Republican Majority Leader Joseph
Bruno have proposed changes including expanding drug-treatment
programs, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has said those changes
don't go nearly far enough.

The mandatory drug-sentencing statutes were enacted in 1973 and 1974
at the urging of then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.