RESTRAINING ORDER IS LATEST WEAPON AGAINST DRUG DEALERS

When a Gibbstown man was arrested recently while driving along West
Buck Street in Paulsboro, it wasn't because he was speeding, tossing
beer cans into the street or driving erratically.

Instead, Ted Holloway, 20, was charged with violating a judge's order
to stay off the 200 block of West Buck Street after his arrest on
charges of selling crack cocaine there.

The order, by Superior Court Judge Martin Herman, came in the form of
a Drug Offender Restraining Order, a new tool in law enforcement's
ever-expanding arsenal of counterpunches.

Known as DOROs, the restraining orders are designed to keep suspected
drug dealers out of familiar haunts and disrupt drug trafficking.

Judges aren't required to issue the orders. Bail also is left up to
the judges; there is no minimum or maximum. Herman set Holloway's
bail at $1,000 following his Sept. 21 arrest on a contempt-of-court
charge.

Once issued, the restraining orders remain in effect for at least two years.

Gloucester County Prosecutor Andrew Yurick says issuance of DOROs
can't help but make the streets and neighborhoods of New Jersey safer.

"The basic theory is that, if we can make it so these people are not
welcome in the neighborhood in a legal sense, that's going to empower
the neighborhood to keep them out," he said. "People have a right to
live in neighborhoods where their kids don't have to walk by five or
six drug dealers on their way to and from school or going out to
play."

Legislation creating DOROs was introduced in the state Senate in
January 1999, by Wayne R. Bryant, D-Camden, and William L. Gormley,
R-Atlantic. It was adopted and put into effect Jan. 10 of this year.

Lee Solomon, the prosecutor in Camden County, says DOROs will provide
one more tool "to help us attack drug problems in specific hot
spots." He says he's hopeful they also will serve as a deterrent once
the general public and drug dealers learn of their existence.

Yurick plans to familiarize his community by handing out literature.

"Our biggest asset is the people in the communities," he said. "If a
drug dealer shows up and a resident knows he has been previously
arrested on the street for drugs, all he has to do is call the police
and say, `John Doe is on my street, and there's a DORO against him.'
He won't have to identify himself or do anything else."

West Buck Street residents in Paulsboro hope the new restraining
orders will help keep drug dealers from returning.

"It's scary just to walk down the street," said one woman, who has
lived on West Buck for more than 25 years. " I used to take a walk
and fear nothing. Now, you don't know if they're going to snatch your
pocketbook or what they're going to do. They're desperate, not only
the sellers but those who are buying it, also."