POLICE RE-EMPHASIZE WAR ON DRUGS TO CUT HOMICIDES

Five years ago, former Police Chief Dennis Nowicki broke up a
department-wide unit aimed at combating street-level drug dealing.

Nowicki, who retired as chief last year, said the 24-member Street Drug
Interdiction unit lacked focus and was "dumb policing."

But in the wake of a 29 percent increase in homicides last year, police are
reviving street-level drug enforcement units in Charlotte-Mecklenburg's most
affected areas. Chief Darrel Stephens, who cites drug activity as the
primary reason for the 1999 surge in homicides, said drug-plagued
neighborhoods need help.

Sgt. Dave Nowlan, who supervises an 11-member community crimes unit in west
Charlotte and southwest Mecklenburg, said the loss of the department-wide
drug interdiction unit contributed to last year's sharp increase in
homicides.

Police lost contact with informants and the ability to gather street-level
intelligence after the unit was dismantled, he said.

"We're starting at ground zero now," Nowlan said. "I'm not trying to say
anything bad about (Nowicki's) commitment to community policing, but before
you go into a park and paint the swing sets, you have to get rid of the guys
slinging dope."

The shift to more street interdiction activities has spurred debate about
the best way to fight drug trafficking in fragile communities and whether
street-level enforcement activities can reduce the number of homicides.

Nationally, drug-related homicides account for only about 6 percent of all
slayings, according to recent FBI statistics. But law enforcement experts
acknowledge the strong link between drugs and crime. The relationship
between drugs and homicides, however, differs from city to city, they say.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police recorded 84 homicides last year. At least 25
percent were drug-related. More than half of all homicides last year
occurred outdoors, a strong indication they also involved drugs, police
said.

"We looked at the homicide data and one of the things that stuck out is the
number of outdoor homicides," Stephens said. "There is also a continuing
concern based on the locations and circumstances of the homicides that
buyers and sellers are being killed over drugs."

In response, police have targeted areas throughout Mecklenburg for special
enforcement. In south Charlotte, for example, police plan a youth-gang unit.
In several other areas, police plan street drug enforcement units, but
haven't decided exactly how much manpower to devote to the effort. Stephens
has said the department's overall emphasis on community policing - building
partnerships with residents and businesses - will continue.

The first and largest of the street-level enforcement efforts, the community
crimes unit headed by Nowlan, has been operating since November. The unit,
which focuses on drugs and weapons, has already netted more than 40 guns and
made more than 80 arrests in west Charlotte. Police call that geographical
zone the Adam service area.

Nowlan said he hopes the west Charlotte initiative will eventually grow into
a department-wide team similar to the street drug interdiction unit
disbanded in 1995.

Former Police Chief Nowicki said he never dismantled the department's
street-level drug enforcement effort. Instead, Nowicki said he decentralized
it, allowing supervisors in service areas and districts to decide how they
would attack the drug problem. Nowicki, head of a public service and
leadership training center at Pfeiffer University in Charlotte, said the
interdiction unit was long on intimidation and short on results.

"The street drug interdiction unit as it existed had no focus," Nowicki
said. "The officers were simply fishing in the goldfish bowl. They measured
their success on the pounds of drugs seized, without any assessment of the
effects their efforts were having on the community's level of fear and
victimization."

Nowicki said some residents argued that officers were occasionally too
aggressive and harassed people. Nowlan said the only people who complained
were the ones breaking the law.

"I hope we do intimidate the people selling drugs and tearing these
neighborhoods down," Nowlan said. "Maybe they'll be so intimidated, they'll
leave Mecklenburg or get an honest job."

Responding to Nowlan and other critics who contend that Nowicki's policies
contributed to the rise in homicides, the former chief said, "Violent crime
in Charlotte is at an all-time low."

As of Oct. 31, homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault in 1999 had
dropped a combined 5 percent from the previous year.

When asked whether he thought street-level drug enforcement would be more
effective as a centralized unit, Chief Stephens said, "I have not gotten
into that debate."

According to police records, 30 of the department's 84 homicides last year,
about 36 percent, occurred in the Adam service area on the westside.
Officers in the community crimes unit said many of the victims were drug
buyers or dealers.

"That doesn't surprise me," said Charlotte City Council member Patrick
Cannon. "If you live here, it's no secret."

Cannon, head of the council's public safety committee, said he supports the
renewed focus on street-level drug dealing, adding that things got worse
soon after the department-wide interdiction unit was decentralized.

"I don't know about decentralized. SDI (the unit) just disappeared," he
said. "That was a terrible mistake. People are coming into fragile and
threatened parts of the community and either buying or selling drugs. Most
of them don't even come from west Charlotte. Then there's a confrontation
and the end result is a homicide. We need to put a stop to it yesterday."

Police said one such killing occurred Dec. 20. Marcus Helms, 47, twice
convicted of cocaine possession, was shot in the leg after an apparent drug
deal in the 300 block of West Worthington Avenue, police said. Wounded,
Helms drove toward South Tryon Street and slammed his car into a large metal
garbage bin, police said. Helms bled to death, police said.

Maj. Kevin Wittman, acting deputy chief for the Adam service area,
acknowledged the link between drugs and homicides, but said the relationship
between drug enforcement units and the number of slayings is not clear.

Between 1991 and 1994 - the only full years the department-wide unit
operated - Charlotte averaged 108 homicides annually. Over that time,
homicides declined an average of 33 percent a year.

Wittman said homicides increased in the Adam service area, even when west
Charlotte had its own drug interdiction team.

Officers in the revived community crimes unit have a variety of policing
experience. Three were members of the department-wide interdiction unit. Two
were SWAT officers and one has an Alcoholic Beverage Control Board
background. The remaining members of the original street drug interdiction
unit were assigned to patrol.

Law enforcement officers in other cities say special units are only one tool
in fighting street-level drug dealing.

"I think everyone has finally recognized that drug enforcement is the job of
all police officers, not just specialized units," said Lt. Melvin Brown, who
heads the 1,200-member Metropolitan Nashville (Tenn.) Police Department's
vice unit. "Most robberies and burglaries are related to drugs. And people
kill each other over drugs. You couldn't create a situation with more fear
and mistrust than when a drug dealer and a buyer meet each other for the
first time."

Brown said the department investigated a record 112 homicides, most of them
drug related, in 1997. But aggressive policing and partnerships
with federal and state authorities cut the total to 68, a 39 percent
decrease, in 1999, he said.

Nashville police said their focus on drugs began with computer-aided mapping
of the areas with the most homicides and drug traffic. Then police attacked
those areas with aggressive traffic enforcement, stopping vehicles with
expired tags and drivers playing loud music.

"Once word got out that we were doing that, people thought twice about
coming into the neighborhoods to buy drugs," Brown said. "A lot of people
know that you can't buy drugs without a gun for protection. But at the same
time, you can't risk getting pulled over by a cop when you have a gun in the
car."

Brown said police there supported the traffic enforcement effort by
operating special drug enforcement units in each of the department's four
sectors and conducting check points with the state's highway patrol on
streets known for open-air drug dealing. He said their efforts had also been
helped by a state law requiring landlords to evict anyone selling drugs out
of a rental property.

"We've had 100 percent compliance from the landlords," he said. "And we've
had very, very few complaints from honest citizens."

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a
law enforcement think tank based in Washington, said police have grown
frustrated with drug enforcement.

"It seems like a revolving door," Wexler said. "But departments have
realized that you can't let the drug trade go, because it's invariably
linked to other crimes. Police understand that. Now it's time for the rest
of the system to come around."

Wexler said drug interdiction units are the first line of defense but need
to be coupled with stricter punishment for drug-related crimes.

Several Charlotte-Mecklenburg community crime officers went through
extensive training at the Central Piedmont Community College north campus in
Huntersville, beginning about two weeks ago. Police received instruction on
preparing federal drug and weapons cases and conducting searches,
forfeitures and raids on drug houses.

Police hope the training will result in more convictions and stiffer
penalties for repeat offenders. Latawn Aaron Collins, according to police,
is a perfect example.

Collins, 20, of Charlotte, was arrested by the Adam community crimes unit in
the 2800 block of Markland Drive on Monday and charged with unlawful
possession of a .38-caliber handgun. Collins, convicted in 1996 for cocaine
possession, has been arrested more than a dozen times since 1995 - primarily
on drug charges. "Eventually he may have used that gun," Nowlan said.

Nowlan and his officers were back on the street a day later. One officer hid
in an abandoned house, watching drug deals and giving the details to other
police in marked and unmarked cars. About 5 p.m. Tuesday, he spotted a
familiar face, a woman arrested in the neighborhood several times on charges
of crack cocaine possession.

"I'm observing a hand-to-hand transaction," he said over the police radio.

Several officers, all within a three-block radius of the apparent drug deal,
sped down South Tryon Street near West Boulevard and stopped a Mercedes.
They greeted her by name, questioned her, searched the car and released her
within 15 minutes.

"I think she swallowed it," an officer said.

"I didn't know it was against the law for a white woman to be in a black
neighborhood," she told police. "I don't want any trouble. I won't come
back."

Police stopped her 20 minutes later, lingering in the same neighborhood.
Another lecture. They let her go.

"We're going to have to pray for her," the officer said.