Police Tactics Challenged

RESIDENTS OF DURHAM APARTMENTS CALL RAID EXCESSIVE

DURHAM - A two-night police raid last weekend that netted 25 arrests
at an apartment complex in eastern Durham was called Operation TAPS,
for "The Aggressive Police Strategy."

Residents say it was too aggressive.

Officers tackled a sixth-grader and pointed guns at his head for no
reason, the boy and his mother said. Police searched vacant units
without permission, other residents claim.

And authorities coerced their way past nervous renters to conduct
lengthy searches, the residents contended in interviews Friday and in
written statements sent to police.

Late Friday, the interim police chief acknowledged the complaints,
which were coordinated by the local chapter of the NAACP, and said he
will meet with residents to "personally address" their concerns.

"The Durham Police Department conducts operations within the scope of
the law and with absolute respect for the rights and the dignity of
every individual," said Chief Steve Chalmers, who said he was planning
to meet with residents and the NAACP soon.

Mayor Bill Bell, who looked on as the raid began, said he saw nothing
unprofessional and would encourage similar raids in the future.

It is more unsettling, he said, that residents must live in a
high-crime area.

Police said they conducted the raids at the compact complex at 1835
Cheek Road because residents had complained about drug sales for
months. Police conducted undercover surveillance for six weeks before
the raids and coordinated several drug purchases the week before.

Last Friday, as Bell sat in the mobile police substation watching on a
television, more than 100 officers hit the complex as two National
Guard helicopters circled above.

Police say the operation was successful: They seized heroin, crack and
powder cocaine, marijuana and prescription narcotics. Twenty-five
people were arrested on various drug and weapons charges.

But Ronald Cole Jr., 13, and his mother, Denise D. Lawrence, 36, a
Duke University housekeeper, said officers treated them badly.

Ronald, who attends Chewning Middle School, ran home scared as
officers pulled up and a helicopter searchlight shone on him, he said.
He jumped into his mother's lap. Officers went into the apartment, put
Ronald on the kitchen floor with two guns to his head and handcuffed
him, the mother and son said.

The two said in interviews and written statements that police
eventually released Ronald after realizing that he did not possess
drugs.

"They said they thought he was 16 or 17," Lawrence said. "They said he
shouldn't have run and they were sorry. But that was just as they were
leaving. That was it. It was very scary."

Yolanda M. Green, 24, a hairdresser, said officers showed up at her
door and asked to look inside for guns and drugs. She said she told
them to leave -- she was getting ready for a large family gathering
and had to cook and clean.

She said the officers would not leave and eventually began searching
her home against her will, apparently taking a comment she made as
consent. Records did not show a warrant for her address. The police
looked through cabinets, the refrigerator, cereal boxes, the stove,
the washer and dryer, closets and her bedding, she said.

Police did not seize anything.

"That's wrong," she said. "I didn't want them in my house. I didn't
have anything. And they should not worry about the innocent people."

A woman who identified herself in a statement as Kedra Johnson said
she had packed up household items to prepare for a move when the raid
took place. She complained in the statement that officers broke her
door down and went through her boxes when she wasn't at home.

Johnson could not be reached for additional comment.

But officers had a search warrant for that unit, according to court
documents, and they seized two bags of "green vegetable matter," a
scale and ammunition. Officers swore in affidavits that on two
occasions they witnessed a confidential informant buy drugs from that
unit.

Officers went to five other apartment units with search warrants. In
three of them, according to court records, small amounts of marijuana
or crack cocaine and stolen pistols were recovered. In the third case,
14 pills of hydrocodone, a narcotic, were seized. In the last search,
nothing was found.

The mayor said he saw police act professionally and was pleased with
the raid.

"I'm not questioning that people were alarmed," Bell said. "But we
should be just as focused on the drug sales going on in an apartment
complex where children live. I would not discourage the Police
Department from future raids. We need to send a signal that we are not
going to tolerate criminal activity in Durham."