DRUG ARRESTS TARGET BLACKS MOST OFTEN

Study Finds Racial Disparity; Chief Pledges To Review Issue

More than half the people getting arrested for drug crimes in Seattle are
African American -- a rate so disproportionate to the city's black
population that police Chief Gil Kerlikowske is vowing to address the issue.

Blacks make up 8 percent of Seattle's population and only 6 percent to 7
percent of drug users in King County, but they account for 57 percent of
adult drug arrests, according to a study released yesterday.

The six-month study of 1999 arrests, conducted by graduate-student
researchers at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, suggests
two key reasons for the racial disparity:

Police place greater emphasis on curbing low-level drug sales in open-air
markets downtown than in outlying neighborhoods.

Sellers, rather than predominantly white buyers, have been the focus of
frequent undercover "buy busts."

Making their first joint public appearance, Kerlikowske joined Bob
Boruchowitz, head of the largest public defender association in Seattle, to
announce the study's findings and point toward solutions.

"This cries out for attention and creative responses," said Boruchowitz,
whose agency requested the study. "That's what the chief being here is all
about."

The researchers, for example, interviewed drug-treatment professionals who
reported that the majority of heroin users in King County were white. That
conclusion was supported by records from the county's Medical Examiner's
Office, which showed that during 1997-99, 83 percent of the people
suffering heroin overdoses were white.

Yet in 1999, 54 percent of heroin-related convictions involved
African-Americans, the study found.

"It's white guys in their 30s who are dying, but it's black guys who are
going to jail," Ron Green, an area drug-treatment provider, told the
researchers.

Yesterday, Kerlikowske and Boruchowitz called for increased funding for
drug prevention and treatment programs, and said the county-run Drug Court
should be expanded to provide more alternatives to addicts facing jail or
prison time.

The Police Department also needs more beat officers and resources in order
to deal with escalating drug activity, they said.

"Today's user is yesterday's seller and vice versa," Kerlikowske said. "We
need to stop flushing people through the process, which is what we've been
doing."

Kerlikowske said the disparity found in the study isn't an indication of
racial profiling by his officers. He said the department has a duty to
combat the brazen drug dealing going on downtown, including a thriving
heroin trade taking place in the shadow of Pike Place Market.

"There's no greater form of racism than not going into an area because it
might be perceived as being racially insensitive," he said.

Kerlikowske, however, said he supports an increase in so-called
"reverse-buy" operations, in which undercover police pose as drug sellers.
That would result in a higher percentage of whites getting arrested, he said.

The chief said he's concerned by the study's findings and will be
contacting leaders of minority groups to discuss them.

In each of the last two years, Seattle police reported making about 4,000
drug arrests. The study used a sample of slightly more than 3,000 drug
arrests in Seattle made in 1999. Of those, 1,711 were black, 1,167 were
white or Hispanic, 91 were Asian, and 49 were Native American.

Boruchowitz and Kerlikowske decried the seemingly endless cycle drug
offenders -- black and white -- traverse through the criminal-justice system.

"The public wants something different than sending kids to prison for small
amounts of drugs," Boruchowitz said.

"We're cutting off their opportunity for education and their ability to
support their families. It just doesn't make sense."