ATKINS CRITICIZES DRUG EFFORT

Police Should Target Larger Dealers, He Says.

SARASOTA -- Vice Mayor Fredd Atkins said that by simply targeting crack in
Newtown, police aren't doing enough to solve the city's drug problems.

Atkins wants the department to target the bigger dealers bringing drugs
into Sarasota.

Police Chief Peter Abbott met with the commissioners Monday to discuss a
recent Newtown drug raid in which police killed a man and threw flash bangs
into a yard where children were playing. Abbott said the raid, which
included a SWAT team, was necessary to protect children living in the house
and to get drugs off the streets.

Atkins called for the meeting with the chief, saying he had "questions
about the health, safety and public welfare of the people in that yard."

Commissioner Ken Shelin said Monday that he was also concerned about the
children and asked if they were in danger during the raid.

"Every day they spent at that house they were" in danger, Abbott said.

Abbott said the police brought in the SWAT team and used officers to patrol
around the raid because it was a "high risk" operation. One of the suspects
in the Dixie Avenue house had a previous weapon charge.

In the end, Atkins wasn't satisfied with the chief's explanations or the
department's tactics.

After the meeting, Atkins called the police raid "excessive" and
"fruitless" because there was only one drug arrest and a small amount of
drugs was seized.

"I think this is a typical police report," Atkins said. "They are covering
their butts, calling it a justified homicide and moving on."

Abbott said officers seized weapons, crack cocaine and accessories used in
manufacturing the drug.

"If I wanted to stop people from smoking cigarettes, I wouldn't go after
the individual smoker," Abbott said. "I would go after the manufacturer."

The two agreed that the manufacturer is the root of the problem, but Atkins
said officers are looking in the wrong place, and until they start looking
outside of Newtown the problems will continue.

"Why are all of us going to jail and the people who look like them are
not?" Atkins said. "It's a tragic situation. It will continue until all the
flow of traffic outside to buy crack cocaine is snuffed out."

Abbott said officers have started addressing the problem by setting up
undercover street-level drug deals. By doing so, they can arrest buyers and
suppliers coming into the area, he said.

Mayor Mary Anne Servian said she wants to take a look at the broader issue
of crack cocaine in the black community.

Servian said crack, which is more prevalent in the black community, carries
a harsher sentence than powder cocaine, which is generally used by young
white men.

"Legislators are surprised by that," she said. "But, we have to find a way
to go back and look at the statutes and sentencing structure."

Abbott will meet with residents during a forum Aug. 27.