NORTH/NORTHEAST DRUG-FREE ZONE COULD GROW

* Proponents Say The Area, Which Would Incorporate Two Current Zones, Would
Cut Down On Drug Activity That Is Substantially Higher Than Elsewhere In
The City

Police and prosecutors, hoping to bring relief to a community plagued by
street-level drug dealing, want to create a new, expanded drug-free zone
stretching 4.26 square miles in North and Northeast Portland.

The proposal for the new zone, which would envelop two existing zones and
parts of at least six neighborhoods, could go to the Portland City Council
for a vote as early as February.

"No one's here to tell anybody that drug-free zones solve the problem, but
they are tools to bring relief to the neighborhoods," said Jim Hayden, a
Multnomah County deputy district attorney, addressing community
representatives Monday. "We want to make it more difficult for people to
stand there on the corner and deal drugs."

Under the city's drug-free ordinance, people charged with possession or
distribution of drugs in a particular area can be excluded from the zone
for 90 days, which may increase to a year if convicted. If they return to
the zone during the exclusion period, they can be arrested for trespassing.

Portland currently has four drug-free zones including downtown/Old Town,
the inner eastside and Northeast Portland's Beech and Alberta
neighborhoods. The city also has four prostitution-free zones that operate
under the same principle.

The first drug-free zones were identified in 1992, and Beech and Alberta
were added in February 1997.

By incorporating the Beech and Alberta zones in a larger North/Northeast
zone, police and prosecutors think the drug-zone enforcement will be more
effective. Drug activity in the neighborhoods within the larger boundary
continues to be "substantially higher" than in other parts of the city,
Hayden said. For example, police made 847 narcotics-possession arrests in
the proposed zone between February 1997 and February 1998; compared to 107
narcotics-possession arrests in the inner eastside exclusionary zone during
the same period.

"Right now, we have all these little islands in that area," he said. "We
thought, 'Why don't we draw one larger area.' "

The drug ordinance has not been without controversy. It has received mixed
reviews from residents and was dealt a legal blow in April 1997, when a
Multnomah County Circuit Court judge ruled that it violated state and
federal constitutions both by excluding suspects from a city area and
criminally prosecuting them. To do so, the judge ruled, was punishing a
suspect twice for the same offense. The state attorney general's office has
appealed that decision to the Oregon Court of Appeals, which has yet to rule.

Prosecutors have continued to use the ordinance but have altered their
enforcement to avoid further court challenges. Now, prosecutors offer
suspects arrested on charges of minor drug possession an immediate plea
deal: a reduced sentence for a promise to stay out of the drug-free zones
for one year.

Within the past few months, Hayden has met with at least 25 neighborhood
groups that will be affected by the proposed zone expansion.

Many have embraced the plan.

George McKeever, manager of a 30-unit, federally subsidized apartment
building in the Eliot neighborhood, which would be included in the expanded
zone, supports the move. His tenants, he said, have mental disabilities and
continually are victimized by drug dealers who get arrested and keep
returning to the area.

"It's truly needed," McKeever said.

But some consider the exclusion zones an infringement on citizens' rights
and question whether police might abuse their authority.

Betty Hedberg, chairwoman of the crime prevention committee of Southwest
Neighborhood Inc., a coalition of several neighborhoods, thinks the
exclusion zones just create problems elsewhere in the city. She says that
is the case in some Southwest Portland neighborhoods.

"Experience has shown with drug-or prostitution-free zones that it doesn't
cure the problem, it just moves it elsewhere," Hedberg said.

Hayden acknowledged that certain "hot spots" do pop up outside of the
exclusion zones at times, but he said officers work to monitor those and
respond to them with special enforcement operations.

Albert Jasper, who owns a restaurant in Old Town, described himself as one
of the early supporters of drug-free zones. But Monday, he was critical of
the expansion plan, saying the existing zones are not adequately enforced.
Jasper says he continues to notice crack cocaine dealers milling about the
Old Town neighborhood and not as many police officers targeting them as he
has seen in past years.

"The key to it is the enforcement, and that's where I think it's been a
little lax," Jasper said, addressing the Chief's Forum, a group of
community representatives that meets twice a month with Portland Police
Chief Charles Moose.

Richard Brown, a Northeast Portland resident and member of the Chief's
Forum, praised the proposal, saying the zones have not only kept drug users
from returning to the same street corners but also have enhanced
cooperation between police and community members.

"We need to do whatever we can to get rid of these problems," Brown said.