DRUG ARRESTS DECLINE

Chattanooga police officers are arresting fewer drug suspects these days,
according to department statistics.

In the past three years, drug-related arrests have dropped 27 percent --
from 1,054 to 769. Department officials say the numbers are due to a change
in strategy in the war on drugs.

The department is focusing on major drug suppliers rather than busting
people on street corners, said Lt. Mark Rawlston.

"You've got to cut off the head to kill the giant," said Lt. Rawlston, who
supervises narcotics officers. "We go up the food chain, instead of looking
at the bottom feeders."

Narcotics officers made 466 arrests in the past two years, compared with
1,701 arrests during the preceding two years. The number of narcotics
officers has been more than halved during that four-year period. The
transferred officers still make street-level drug busts, but the narcotics
unit does not get credit for those busts as it did in the past.

'There's a difference in quality and quantity of arrests," Lt. Rawlston
said. "I can tell these guys down here to put 1,000 people in jail, and
they'll do it. I don't want to do it. What purpose does that serve?"

Lt. Rawlston cited work done by his officers during 1998 in the Nate Benford
case, as an example of the emphasis on quality arrests. That investigation
led to cocaine distribution convictions of 30 people. who received prison
sentences ranging from 10 years to life.

Department statistics show more arrests for simple possession, meaning the
suspects were arrested with a drug amount considered small enough to be for
personal consumption. Those arrests increased from 459 in 1998 to 515 in
1999.

Meanwhile, arrests for sale and manufacturing decreased. Those arrested for
having larger amounts of drugs decreased from 372 in 1998 to 254 last year.

In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, the Chattanooga Police Department
would routinely conduct reverse stings where a police officer would offer
drugs for sale, then arrest the people who tried to buy the drug. Those
operations focused on street buys, and arrest numbers skyrocketed, said Sgt.
Sully Batts, a narcotics officer for most of his 15 years on the force.

Sgt. Batts said the public called the narcotic's unit the "Bum Rush Team,"
because officers would pull a van up to a drug deal on the corner, hop out
and start chasing dealers. High-speed pursuits were common, with dealers
sometimes shooting at police. Foot chases were a given.

Lt. Rawlston said those tactics had a downside. The practice was "manpower
and labor intensive, and very dangerous," he said. The tactics led to
complaints of excessive use of force, with each arrest by the Bum Rush Team
yielding an average of 10 complaints. Lt. Rawlston said.

"I liked it," Sgt. Batts said. "We would get everything from a crack pipe to
a large quantity of crack. It was definitely hit or miss.'

Wayne Smith retired from the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1999 after
30 years. He said it's important to arrest street-level drug dealers while
other narcotics officers focus on dealers higher up the ladder.

Most police departments in major cities have adopted this two-pronged
approach, Mr. Smith said.

"Both are effective, but neither works alone," he said. "What's the use in
putting 'Mr. Big' out of business when other dealers are waiting to step in
and take his place. Dealers see it as an opportunity to advance. And with
vigorous street enforcement you attack the slingers on the corner."

Lt. Rawlston said the working environment of police has changed. "In today's
restrictive society, you can't do the run-and-gun things we used to do four
or five years ago," he said.

Lt. Rawlston said he learned declining arrests by major city narcotics units
were common when he attended a training school for narcotics commanders at
the DEA's training center in Quantico, Va.

'We all seemed to have the same problem," he said of those at the school.
"Nobody knows what we do, our resources are dwindling, and everybody is
wondering where the (arrest) numbers went."

With seven officers in narcotics and more than 300 in patrol, the vast
majority of drug arrests are made by the officer on the street.

Lt. Rawlston anticipates departmentwide arrest numbers will increase this
year, as will arrest numbers put up by his unit.

There is no shortage of drug-related crime in Chattanooga, said Joe
Rehyansky, a prosecutor with the local district attorney's office. He said
that drugs, alcohol or a combination are involved directly or indirectly in
40 percent to 60 percent of the cases he worked in General Sessions Court.

"I got the impression that everything from domestic violence to shoplifting,
to auto theft, to burglary were directly related to drugs," Mr. Rehyansky
said. "If fewer cases are coming through that are drug related, that's news
to me.'

Lt. Rawlston agreed that drug dealing and abuse drive up crime figures.
People who need money to buy dope burglarize houses and rob and assault
people on the street, he said.

"It's a no-win situation," Lt. Rawlston said. "You could take the entire
resources of the Chattanooga Police Department, assign all 400 officers to
an area of town, and we wouldn't stop illegal drugs in that area."