WAR ON DRUGS TAKES A TOLL ON THE L.A. JUSTICE SYSTEM

Limited Resources Could Be Better Used Elsewhere.

Some members of the Los Angeles City Council are supporting a tax increase
to hire more police on the grounds that the city is "seriously underpoliced."

This is simply not true.

People who work in the Los Angeles criminal justice system are well aware
that the central problem with the LAPD is not a shortage of police officers
but a misallocation of personnel. Instead of fully policing the most
violent, gang-infested parts of the city, a vast number of officers are
toiling away in the futile "war on drugs."

As a deputy public defender in Los Angeles for the last 15 years, mostly
spent in the central criminal courthouse, I have gained firsthand knowledge
of the misguided priorities of the LAPD. I've witnessed the vast number of
police personnel engaged in the failed prohibition against illegal drugs,
the central feature of which is the so-called "buy-bust" operation. During
these elaborate undercover sting operations, involving 15 to 25 LAPD
officers, a pathetic street person -- who is usually a homeless, mentally
ill, drug-addicted black or Latino parolee -- is approached by an
undercover officer and offered an inflated price for a rock or two of cocaine.

After the target seizes the opportunity to make a quick profit to feed his
drug habit and sells to the undercover officer, the other officers swoop in
to complete the arrest. The arrestee then goes through a cycle of arrest,
trial or plea, incarceration and parole, only to start the cycle again.

The costs to the public in this absurd scenario are not limited to the vast
amount of police time spent making arrests and sitting around in court to
testify. The public costs also include the expense of incarceration in
county jail and state prison, as well as the significant costs to staff
courtrooms with judges, lawyers, clerks, court reporters, interpreters and
juries. A number of judges who handle felonies downtown say that these
street-level drug cases take up about 75% of all court time.

Politicians who exploit the public's legitimate concern for public safety
through the appearance of being "tough on crime" by calling for more police
officers would better serve their constituents if they honestly admitted
the resources wasted in the war on drugs.

Brady Sullivan is a deputy public defender in Los Angeles.