DRUG ARRESTS BY TROOPERS PLUNGE

Drug arrests on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway
continued to plunge last year in the wake of the racial profiling scandal,
reflecting what State Police officials acknowledge is a widespread fear
among troopers that aggressive policing could cost them their jobs.

The number of drug charges filed on the Turnpike fell 25 percent, from 494
in 1999 to 370 last year, according to figures made public yesterday.

The decline on the Parkway was even more dramatic: 55 percent. Troopers
lodged 350 narcotics counts on the Parkway last year, compared with 783
charges filed in 1999.

The figures show drug arrests in free fall since 1998, when the State
Police shooting of three minority motorists on the Turnpike made racial
profiling a national issue. Troopers filed 1,269 drug counts on the
Turnpike and 1,279 on the Parkway that year.

Since then, the state has entered into a consent decree with the federal
government and enacted a host of reforms meant to excise racial profiling,
the deliberate targeting of minorities.

In November, the state released tens of thousands of pages of internal
documents showing that racial profiling had been a longstanding practice
that went hand in hand with the so-called war on drugs. At the height of
that campaign in 1988, troopers lodged more than 7,400 drug counts on the
Turnpike.

State Police Superintendent Col. Carson Dunbar yesterday attributed the
continuing dropoff to a variety of factors, chief among them uncertainty
over when it is appropriate to search a car and a newfound caution among
troopers.

"It's a normal reaction for people who have been criticized for being too
aggressive," said Dunbar, who contends the trend eventually will begin to
reverse. "I don't think anybody can question the fact that everybody is
examining everything that we do, and the troopers are being prudent in the
sense that they want to make sure they do the job the right way."

An official with the union that represents state troopers went further,
saying the current climate has left troopers in stark fear of a misstep
that could leave them before a disciplinary board.

"Clearly, this is a manifestation of the chilling effect of what has
transpired over the past couple of years with the State Police," said Dave
Jones, vice president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New
Jersey.

"No guy in this day and age is going to risk his livelihood, his career,
his liberties for a dope dealer who's going to make an allegation that the
stop was improper or problematic, and hence the trooper ends up being on
the defensive," Jones said.

The latest evidence of the decline in drug arrests comes more than a year
after the state Attorney General's Office drafted a plan placing less
emphasis on catching drug couriers on the highways. That plan, announced in
December 1999, shifted focus to large-scale narcotics rings.

Attorney General John Farmer Jr. said at the time that while drug
interdiction on the highways would continue, the effort would not be "as
prominent."

Jones insisted yesterday that drug couriers continue to shuttle along the
Turnpike and that the profiling issue and falling arrests have made the
state's major highways an attractive venue for narcotics runners.

"Every drug dealer in America high-fives when they see someone get in
trouble over racial profiling," he said. "Nobody has profited over this
more than the drug dealers. They love it."

Dunbar said that while some troopers might be gun-shy, the declining arrest
numbers don't reflect a work slowdown.

He pointed to a modest increase in the number of summonses issued on the
Turnpike last year. Troopers handed out 87,757 tickets on the Turnpike in
2000, compared with 83,502 the year before. More than 98,000 summonses were
issued on the Turnpike in 1998.

"We're making a comeback," Dunbar said.

He said he expects drug arrests also will begin to rebound, though the
increase could take time.

"I think it will take a number of years before they get up to a higher
productivity level," Dunbar said. "They've got to be sure about
search-and-seizure. This is a normal reaction."

Dunbar said troopers who had been encouraged for years to aggressively
pursue drug busts were suddenly confused as to when to initiate a search.
With new forms to fill out for every search and new video cameras in
cruisers tracking their every move, troopers collectively decided that if
they were at risk of making a mistake, they would err on the side of caution.

By the end of last year, Dunbar said, all troopers had been retrained in
traffic stop procedures.

"For the first six months or so, there's confusion as to what you should
do, what you shouldn't do," he said. "We've had them retrained on what is
probable cause, what is not probable cause. . . . Guys are very sure in
making sure that they protect themselves, and that's important. They should
be very cognizant of what they do.

"There are guys that are more hesitant today than they were years ago.
That's not all bad. As we go down the road and troopers are more
comfortable with probable cause and how far they can go, the numbers will
come up."