CITY CONSIDERS FIGHT FOR EXCLUSION-ZONE LAW

Appeal Would Go To U.S. Supreme Court

Cincinnati officials are mulling whether to appeal the Ohio Supreme Court's
rejection of a law intended to curb drugs in Over-the-Rhine.

The city could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to tackle the drug-exclusion zone
issue. The 1996 law that allowed police officers to arrest convicted drug
offenders if they were spotted back in the neighborhood within 90 days also
attacked innocent behavior, the chief justice wrote in a 6-1 decision.

"We're going to evaluate it and see what we think we should do," said Bob
Johnstone, deputy city solicitor.

City Councilman Phil Heimlich, who proposed the ordinance, said he will
urge city officials to appeal.

He said he thinks it's a novel issue for the nation's highest court to take
up because other jurisdictions still use similar laws. He modeled
Cincinnati's law after one in Portland, Ore., where he said it continued to
be an effective tool for police.

Residents in other city neighborhoods have asked for similar ordinances to
help them, Mr. Heimlich said.

Capt. Greg Snider, commander of District 1, which includes Over-the- Rhine,
said the decision won't have any impact on crime-fighting since officers
already had stopped enforcing it. They stopped after the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of Ohio declared the law unconstitutional
last year.

Officers also have stopped enforcing similar laws that allowed them to keep
convicted sex offenders from returning to parks and to take convicted
prostitutes to jail if they appeared back in Over-the-Rhine.

The change has made it more difficult to catch prostitutes because many
know the undercover officers, said spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd, former
supervisor of the vice unit.

"Back then, that didn't matter," he said. "If they were there and they
weren't supposed to be, they could be arrested. We used it quite a bit."