POLICE CRACKDOWN ON DRUG DEALERS CAN BE DONE WITHIN LAW

It's time to lower the decibel level on the pros and cons of the Wilmington
police anti-drug crusade involving jump-out squads. The raids have netted
more than 500 arrests of people allegedly dealing dope on street corners.
And more than 100 photographs have been taken of people who were on the
scene at the time.

All the shouting, no matter how well intentioned, is setting the stage for
a legal showdown that in all likelihood will mainly benefit crooks.

Civil libertarians, particularly the Civil Liberties Union of Delaware,
have taken umbrage at the idea of photographing people who have not been
arrested. They say that it is a potential constitutional breach of privacy.
Mayor James Baker calls that protest "blithering idiocy."

Everybody please sit down and shut up. Let the police do what has to be
done to smash the drug gangs who commandeer street corners and intimidate
whole neighborhoods. A lot of the "victims" of police photography are not
nice little old ladies and kids on skateboards -- even if they are not
packing drugs and guns.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani was criticized early in his
administration for cracking down on street disorder and now he is famous
for cleaning up the Big Apple. Other cities are copying his approach. If
Wilmington's jump-out squads continue to work, they'll be copied too.

Still, civil libertarians aren't idiots for raising concerns. Neither are
the police for doing this dangerous work. It's time they stopped yelling at
each other and put their heads together to make sure this effort works
effectively. Residents in the neighborhoods are demanding it.