POLICE GOING TO TAPE IN DRUG CRACKDOWN

Chicago police on Tuesday were arresting drug suspects caught on
videotape in three undercover operations as officials announced a new
legal strategy being used to combat organized street sales.

Instead of arresting individual sellers--who usually have small
quantities of drugs and get probation or light sentences--the Police
Department and the Cook County state's attorney's office have begun to
document entire street-selling operations, planning to charge all of
the participants.

Drug conspiracy convictions can mean prison sentences of 6 years or
more, much stiffer terms than those imposed for lesser drug offenses,
according to State's Atty. Dick Devine.

Judges now will be able to see evidence, "especially videos," that
"tell the real story," Devine said Tuesday at a news conference on the
West Side. The investigations will be "very difficult, sweat-equity
kind of work," he added.

Each of the undercover investigations is expected to take at least 100
hours.

The first of the investigations, which included video surveillance and
two months of undercover purchases, were conducted in the 1000 block
of North Avers Avenue, the 5000 and 5100 blocks of South Loomis Street
and the 6800 block of South Winchester Avenue.

Police said those areas were targeted after being identified by local
residents as chronic drug-dealing locations. The investigations
resulted in 47 arrest warrants , which led to 38 arrests by Tuesday
morning.

"These drug operations often involve as many as 10 to 20 people," said
Mayor Richard Daley, who also spoke at the press conference. "Some of
them deliver the drugs to the dealers. Some act as lookouts. Some
direct traffic. Some hand over the drugs to the buyers. Some take the
money. Some pick up the money at the end of the day and take it back
to the gang."

Officials hope the new tactic "will wipe out the entire colony of drug
dealers on a corner," Daley said. "It takes longer, but we think it
provides greater benefits in the long run."

Video clips of the initial investigations that were shown at the news
conference depicted what appeared to be wide-open drug sales being
conducted in broad daylight, in some cases with school bus stops nearby.

The intensified enforcement is the result of a federal grant that
permitted the city to hire 150 new officers, freeing up that many
experienced officers to focus on drugs, officials said.

Jay Miller, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Illinois, said "there is no expectation of privacy on the street"
that would prevent the legal use of video cameras by police.