PUT DEALERS ON RUN

CRIME CAN kill. That's one of the lessons from the latest increase in
violence in Savannah, where four people were murdered in a span of seven days.

At least three of the victims who were shot to death had extensive
police records.

That means being a career criminal in this town could shorten your
lifespan. You play with fire (or, in this case, illegal drugs), you
could get burned. Fatally.

But the fact that most of these slayings - in addition to Wednesday's
murder of a young man who was killed in the driveway outside his home
in a quiet Garden City neighborhood - aren't random is of little comfort.

No law-abiding person wants to live in a neighborhood where the bad
guys are shooting it out and yellow crime tape decorates the streets.
Bullets don't recognize an innocent bystander. When lead starts
flying, it can wound or kill a mother or a child as easily as a drug dealer.

Police Chief Dan Flynn has assembled a team of officers to
investigate the latest rash of shootings, a proper response given the
spike in violence. Ironically, the number of murders related to
domestic abuse and armed robbery has gone down over the years.
Progress has been made. But curbing violence within the city's drug
trade has been a far tougher challenge.

The police department's Counter Narcotics Team, a specialized unit
created 11 years ago, attacks the drug problem on two fronts - the
supply side, and the demand side. Going after street-level dealers,
drug gang leaders and their suppliers is part of that strategy. So is
targeting buyers.

In March this year, CNT agents posing as dealers began a series of
sting operations to reduce the high volume of sales in several city
neighborhoods, as well as Garden City. It makes perfect sense.

When fewer people buy drugs, the dealers and those who are higher up
in the supply chain make less money. Remove the profit motive, and
fewer dealers are standing on street corners. They aren't shooting
rivals or trying to expand or protect their turf.

The CNT should continue with the sting operations. They keep dealers
on the run and keep customers guessing: Is this my main man selling
me a rock, or is it cop? Before long, the buyers and sellers figure
out that this neighborhood is bad for business. They go elsewhere.
Granted, that doesn't solve the drug-demand issue. But it keeps those
who are mixed up in it off balance and on the run. That's a good thing.

But police can't do it alone.

The drug boys who are apparently behind some of the shootings live
somewhere. And people see things and notice things, like someone with
no means of support wearing new $100 tennis shoes and standing on the
corner meeting strangers in cars.

Information is the life-blood of good police investigations and
better public safety. Witnesses who are willing to talk can do as
much to get bad guys off the street as cops in patrol cars.