DRUG CROSSROADS (Part 3 of 3)

STEMMING DRUG TRADE FRUSTRATES PATERSON

After six people in three states died of heroin overdoses in June,
investigators quickly zeroed in on Paterson.

It was hardly a reach: The city's multimillion-dollar drug industry
has grown into a go-to source for addicts from New Jersey, New York
and eastern Pennsylvania.

But now many young people were dying, and Rockland County District
Attorney Michael Bongiorno had a question.

"What is Paterson doing about its drug problem?" he
asked.

The city's tactics over the years have ranged from buy-and-bust
arrests to demolishing drug-tainted housing complexes to trying to bar
dealers from returning to their old haunts.

What hasn't been evident is a clear, comprehensive
strategy.

Detectives describe a daily cat-and-mouse pursuit that frequently
results in arrests - nearly 1,300 in the past 18 months for
distribution offenses - and drug seizures. At the same time, they
acknowledge that the approach does little to alter the trade: Most
dealers quickly get bailed out or replaced, and traffickers factor
routine seizures into their business plans.

Cities across the country have endured similar frustrations. Some,
like New York, have suppressed street dealing with a combination of
computer analysis, supervisor accountability and a low tolerance for
petty crimes in drug-prone areas. Two have even driven down their
crime rates with "interventions" designed to reform non-violent street
dealers.

Ironically, Paterson dealers have seen their sales to out-of-towners
rise partly because of New York's successes in fighting the outdoor
drug trade.

Crackdowns like those in Washington Heights, along with ramped-up
security on Hudson River crossings and Paterson's reputation for
potent heroin, have turned more suburban users on to the onetime Silk
City, making it a regional draw. In the past 18 months, suspected
drive-through buyers from 150 towns in New Jersey, New York and
Pennsylvania have been arrested.

To James Wittig, Paterson's acting police chief and former head of
narcotics, that suggests a more complex question.

"Is it our drug problem, or is it theirs?" he said. "People look at
Paterson like it's our problem. But it's really everyone's problem."

'THINGS DON'T CHANGE'

Urban open-air drug markets began cropping up during the crack
epidemic in the late 1980s. Authorities responded with aggressive law
enforcement tactics and stricter sentencing laws.

That approach - racking up arrests and putting large segments of the
community in jail - remains as ineffective now as it was then, said
David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control
at John Jay College in New York.

"All across the country communities have tried swamping areas with
officers, doing undercover operations, stopping cars with drugs and
all that kind of law enforcement where they make arrest after arrest -
and things don't change," he said. "It's not just happening in
Paterson. It's happening everywhere."

Paterson police say they made busting dealers their priority last
year. Arrests for distribution rose by 17 percent while simple
possession charges fell by 29 percent.

The end result?

"It really hasn't changed," said Lt. Anthony Traina. "When we enforce
it, they [the dealers] just move a block over."

Some return repeatedly to the same corners - even when a judge invokes
state law to bar them from going within 500 feet of the site where
they were arrested. Knowing that an exception is made for those who
live within that zone, some dealers simply give false addresses.

Dealing dropped off after the city razed the Christopher Columbus
public housing project on the north side several years ago. Yet many
crews relocated to other sites, including the Alexander Hamilton
complex alongside Route 80, said Irma Gorham, executive director of
the Paterson Housing Authority.

To try to thwart outsiders who drove through Alexander Hamilton to buy
drugs, the city in late 2003 set up concrete barriers and a guard
post. Now, police say, the buyers walk in.

"I think initially it had an impact, but overall I think the guys
dealing the drugs have made adjustments," said Capt. Mario Baldino,
head of the city's narcotics unit.

The City Council strengthened police powers last year, passing an
ordinance allowing officers to seize the vehicles of people arrested
on suspicion of buying drugs or soliciting prostitution. Owners must
pay at least $1,500 to get their vehicles back.

The city has seized 180 vehicles this year, but the measure is facing
a court challenge on constitutional grounds.

A move championed by Mayor Joey Torres - to put police substations in
high-crime neighborhoods - was criticized by the state attorney
general in 2003. Torres said there currently are three mobile
precincts, but residents say they often aren't staffed.

Andre "Shadee" Hill, a community activist who sold drugs as a
teenager, said new generations of dealers will continue to emerge as
long as basic issues of unemployment, poor education and a lack of
recreation go unaddressed. And that takes more than law
enforcement.

"People rely on police to get rid of drug dealers," he said. "They
don't build a coalition. The community should work together to get rid
of the problem. At the end of the day, [the police] go back to their
towns where it's clean and the streets are safe.

"It makes you want to scream."

Three years ago, state police launched two partnerships - one in
Camden, the other in Irvington - to target street crime in a way that
recognizes the ties between the cities and suburbia. The coalitions
brought police departments, prosecutors and probation and parole
officers together with residents.

In each case, the first step was to meet with families and community
leaders and listen to their experiences, said state police Capt. Wendy
Galloway.

Results of the partnerships were mixed.

In Camden, one of the nation's most dangerous cities, authorities took
a fresh look at the open-air drug markets and identified and arrested
many of the key dealers. At the same time, police increased foot
patrols in high-crime areas and took part in park cleanups and youth
football games.

But crime increased after the initiative began three years ago, then
dipped by 33 percent after it was scaled back last year, said police
Capt. Albert Handy.

The program in Irvington had immediate success, leading to the breakup
two years ago of the Champagne Posse, at that time Essex County's
largest marijuana ring. And this year, it resulted in the arrests of
17 suburban drug users and the head of a city trafficking ring.

"The nature of crime today requires more coordination among bordering
communities than ever before. You can't afford the luxury of having
turf wars," said Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith. "The state police really
have no boundaries."

SECOND CHANCE

Police in High Point, N.C., are trying their own method of fighting
drugs, by offering a second chance to certain street-level dealers who
don't have a violent or habitual criminal past.

Developed by Kennedy of John Jay College, the program is a departure
from traditional police work. In some instances, dealers have gotten
help finding work, job training, family counseling and drug-addiction
treatment.

In the program's first year, violent crime in High Point dropped by 54
percent and drug crime fell by 34 percent, records show.

For police in the city of 90,000, a core of the campaign was publicly
admitting that the old ways of fighting drugs were shortsighted, said
Chief Jim Fealy.

"Usually, when law enforcement identifies a high-crime area, they come
rolling in and kind of become an occupied army in the neighborhood,"
he said. "It's kind of like a dragnet. They stop everyone who lives
there and question them, and obviously, not everyone in the
neighborhood is a drug dealer.

"You might have short-term success by using those tactics, but it
usually doesn't last long. And the neighborhood doesn't appreciate
what you've done."

In High Point, police focus on neighborhoods with the worst drug
problems. Officers first amass evidence against the dealers, using
informants, surveillance and undercover buys. The repeat offenders are
arrested. But in the case of low-level dealers, police approach family
members, explaining what the suspects have done and the options
available to them.

The dealers then are invited to a meeting - where they are confronted
by family members and community leaders. When they take a seat, police
slap down the case files and deliver an ultimatum: Stop hustling or go
to jail.

For the program to work, community members must truly want to get rid
of the dealers, Fealy said. But that's not always the case. As in
Paterson, many dealers support extended families with the money they
make on the corner.

The High Point approach - which is also under way in Winston-Salem,
N.C., and about to begin in Rochester, N.Y. - also addresses racial
tensions and community perceptions that often aren't discussed.

"Police don't understand how they are being looked at," Kennedy said.
"[Residents] come to the conclusion that the police don't care and are
corrupt. They think the drug trade is a plot by law enforcement to
destroy the community."

Paterson residents often complain about being stopped and searched for
no reason. In that context, drug dealers can justify what they do as
standing up to authority, Kennedy said.

"What law enforcement is doing is not going to work," he said, "not
because they are not technically up to the job, but because they
ignore this deep political and racial problem."

POLICE FRUSTRATIONS

Around the hallways at 111 Broadway in Paterson, Compstat has become a
buzzword.

City officials partly credit the computer-based program - and its use
in assigning officers to specific areas - with last year's 9.1 percent
drop in overall crime. The city of 150,000 had 12 homicides in 2004,
the lowest number in eight years.

Compstat began in New York in 1994 in response to rising crime. It
uses statistics, pin-mapping and intense strategy sessions to hold
police commanders accountable for their precincts. Those unable to cut
down on crime are interrogated in front of their peers. Some are
eventually replaced.

Although New York remains a key wholesale distribution point for
heroin and cocaine, police say the program has helped reduce crime and
eliminate many of New York's open-air drug markets. Most dealing is
now done behind closed doors.

But Paterson police say Compstat is of little use in fighting the
city's drug trade: The corners where dealers conduct their business
are already well-known.

Paterson employs 410 police officers and hopes to hire two dozen more
this year. The department can barely answer the 30 or so calls that
come in each hour, police say.

"We're doing the best we can with what we have," City Councilman Aslon
Goow said. "We have a dozen more cops than we used to have. We work
closely with the Sheriff's Department. But that's still not enough."

Recruiting officers is difficult, in large part because of the
department's low pay scale, Goow said. In Paterson, new police
recruits receive a base salary of $20,125. In neighboring Haledon,
annual salaries go to $43,581 after six months.

"Every time there is a wave of hiring, there is an exodus of people
leaving the department," he said. "Twenty people are hired, then 30
leave because of retirement."

On any given day, agents from the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office,
Passaic County Sheriff's Department and Drug Enforcement
Administration also patrol the streets, making arrests and seizing
drugs in what they call a supporting role.

The Passaic County Narcotics Task Force, for example, made about 200
arrests in Paterson last year, often working together with city
officers, said Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Chiaramonte. The
Prosecutor's Office's Gang Suppression Unit arrested a similar number
of drug suspects.

"Our investigations are focused on the suppliers and dealers and
stopping them from selling," Chiaramonte said. "But there's always
cross-referencing with other agencies."

He acknowledged the frustration they all face. "We're never going to
stop the drug dealing, that's for sure," he said.

A much-publicized feud between suspended Police Chief Lawrence
Spagnola and Mayor Torres doesn't help the department's already low
morale, Goow said.

"I'm sure there is a major issue regarding the chain of command and
trying to figure out who they [officers] are working for," he said.

Spagnola has been suspended, reinstated and suspended again in the
past year, and is suing the mayor and city police director, accusing
them of slander. Torres denies that the dispute has had an effect on
police work, calling his relationship with Wittig a "harmonious" one.

But relations between the mayor and police have often been hostile. In
early 2003, police union leaders lashed out at Torres after he demoted
33 officers to save money. He later reinstated their ranks after the
state intervened.

Torres came into office three years ago vowing to clean up the
streets. Yet he acknowledged that there have been no "out-of-the-box"
approaches to the drug problem during his 15 years as an elected official.

In an interview for this article, he said he now has a
plan.

He said he will recommend that the city expand the narcotics squad by
25 officers - nearly doubling its size - and purchase drug-sniffing
dogs to help cut down on dealers' supplies. Under the plan, the
$900,000 would have to come from the city's treasury and would require
City Council approval.

But Goow questioned whether the cash-strapped city could afford it.
"The bottom line is we have a major deficit that we're facing," he
said. "And I don't understand where the money is going to come from."

The city also plans to install wireless surveillance cameras in some
high-drug areas.

Despite those measures, Torres said, drugs are in his city to
stay.

"I don't think we'll ever shut it down. I think we'll be able to
reduce it," Torres said. "It's sad to say, but it's always going to be
there."

CHANGE OF HEART

It was on the streets of Paterson that Jack Cole's epiphany
struck.

The former state police trooper spent 14 years doing undercover
narcotics work in New Jersey. He figures his efforts put 1,000 people
behind bars. Some deserved it. But many others, he now says, did not.

"What makes it hard for me to sleep at night is thinking about how
many people would have gone on to have a happy productive life," said
Cole, co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a nationwide
group of hundreds of current and former law enforcement officers who
favor legalized regulation of drugs.

The group calls the war on drugs a failed policy, arguing that illicit
drugs are cheaper, more potent, and easier to obtain than ever.
Locking up millions of non-violent drug offenders, Cole says, has done
little but help the prison industry grow.

While working undercover one night in Paterson in the 1970s, Cole was
jumped by a drug dealer and his accomplice. The two men fled after
Cole drew his gun.

When a good Samaritan came by to help, Cole asked where he could score
some drugs. The man said he didn't take drugs but directed the
undercover officer to a dealer. Cole later arrested both men.

At the city jail, the man who had tried to help Cole said a few words
he's never forgotten: "Man, I was just trying to be your friend."

Cole had a profound change of heart:

"I said at that point, this stuff has gone too far. There's no justice
in the drug laws at all. We're arresting the wrong people."

Paterson has made modest attempts to couple law enforcement with
social work and community relations, the city's acting police chief
said. And police will continue trying to reduce the amount of drugs on
the street by refining the tactics now in place, he said.

"They're working to a degree," Wittig said. "At the same time, we try to be
as realistic as possible. We would like to eliminate the drugs, but we've
got to face facts."
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SIDEBAR

Three strategies

New York City

Police officials combined a computer-based program (Compstat) that
pinpoints high-crime areas with strategy sessions, supervisor
accountability and a low tolerance for petty crime. Precinct
commanders who have not reduced crime in their precincts are
interrogated in front of their peers. Some eventually are replaced.

Results: Since 1993, major crime in New York City has dropped by 67 percent
and outdoor drug dealing has been sharply reduced.

High Point, N.C.

Acknowledging that the old ways of fighting drugs have not worked,
police focus on reforming dealers with no violent history while
seeking help from the community. After gathering evidence, they
approach family members and explain what the suspects have done. Then
they hold intervention meetings with the dealers and their loved ones.
Those who agree to go straight are offered family counseling,
drug-addiction treatment and help finding work.

Results: In the program's first year, violent crime dropped by 54 percent
and drug crime fell by 34 percent.

Paterson

Police employ conventional tactics such as buy-and-bust operations,
neighborhood sweeps and vehicle seizures. Several years ago, dealers
relocated after the city razed the Christopher Columbus housing
development. A plan to knock down the Alexander Hamilton complex has
stalled because of a lack of funding. Officials also are pursuing a
curfew law and plan to buy surveillance cameras for use in some drug
areas.

Results: Despite an overall drop in crime last year, the city's open-air
drug markets continue to draw buyers from across the region. An analysis by
The Record found that the percentage of out-of-towners arrested by Paterson
police for buying or seeking drugs has nearly doubled over the past five
years, to 35 percent this year.