A WAR WITH NO WINNERS

Arresting Large Numbers Of The City's Most Vulnerable Residents Does
Nothing To Address The Underlying Social Problems Of Drug Addiction,
Poverty, And Despair

The City of Seattle's response to the problem of drugs is both unjust
and unnecessarily costly. In particular, the city should de-prioritize
the arrest of low-level, non-violent drug offenders and encourage the
funding and development of more cost-effective methods of protecting
public safety and reducing drug abuse.

The current approach to drug abuse emphasizes the arrest of many drug
users for possession or "low-level" delivery. It is commonplace for
drug users to deliver or facilitate delivery of small amounts of drugs
and both are arrested on delivery charges. Either the buyer or the
deliverer gives facilitators, who are often called "clucks" or
"go-betweens," drugs or a small amount of cash for their assistance.
These go-betweens and deliverers are overwhelmingly nonviolent,
drug-addicted offenders.

At the same time, an estimated 130,000 persons in King County need,
but cannot obtain, substance abuse treatment. The city neither
currently provides nor proposes to provide treatment vouchers to
people addicted to non-opiates. The emphasis solely on law enforcement
does not reduce harms associated with illicit drug use and is
extremely costly. While the city incurs the policing costs associated
with this strategy (nearly $2.9 million next year, including personnel
costs), county taxpayers pay to process, prosecute, defend, and jail
those arrested. Unless the city's approach to drug abuse changes, King
County's entire general fund will be spent on the criminal justice
system by the year 2008.

The current response to drug abuse is not only ineffective and
expensive, but disproportionately targets the most vulnerable: the
poor, homeless, and drug-addicted. People of color within these
categories are especially vulnerable to arrest under the city's
current policies. Arresting large numbers of the city's most
vulnerable residents does nothing to address the underlying social
problems of drug addiction, poverty, and despair.

Four aspects of the city's approach to drug abuse must change in order
to promote public safety and reduce drug abuse in the long term.

Stop routinely using patrol officers in undercover "buy-bust"
operations aimed at low-level dealers Buy-bust operations (in which
undercover officers solicit drugs from suspected dealers) in recent
years consumed approximately 800 officer hours a month, even though on
average a buy-bust yielded less than one gram -- equivalent to one
packet of sweetener -- of narcotics.

Fund drug treatment and harm reduction programs Research consistently
demonstrates treatment and prevention programs are a far more
cost-effective means of dealing with drug abuse than the criminal
justice system. A study found that drug treatment is seven times more
cost-effective than drug law enforcement in reducing drug abuse, and
that every dollar spent on treatment saves $7.48 on reduced crime and
regained productivity.

Stop targeting vulnerable people arrest The current focus on low-level
offenders disparately impacts the poor in general and poor addicts of
color in particular. Under the most conservative estimate of available
2002 Seattle-King County public health data, less than 50 percent of
Seattle's recent cocaine users were persons of color. Yet,
approximately 97.1 percent of those convicted of dealing less than
half of one gram of cocaine in 2002 were Black, Latino, Asian/Pacific
Islander or Native American.

Make the prevention, detection, investigation, and arrest of violent
and property crimes in Seattle the highest law enforcement priority
Rapes, robberies, violent assaults, burglaries, and serious property
crimes go unsolved in Seattle at a higher rate than the national
average for cities of comparable size. Detection and investigation of
violent and property crimes begins with prompt 911 responses and
thorough police reports. These should be the department's top priority.

A coalition of racial and social justice organizations,
representatives of communities of color, religious leaders, labor
activists, public health and human services providers, academics, and
other concerned citizens have developed the "Budget for Justice"
campaign in order to transform the city's drug enforcement policies.
The coalition is calling for the city to stop using police patrol
resources to conduct undercover drug operations, re-focus those
resources on the arrest and investigation of property and violent
crimes, halt the use of arrest of "low-level" drug offenders as the
city's primary tactic against drug abuse, and fund more effective
responses to drug abuse in our community, such as drug treatment
programs. Community members concerned about this issue should come to
the Seattle City Council's last public hearing on this year's proposed
budget, Thursday, November 4, and make their voices heard.

D'Adre Cunningham is staff attorney of the Defender Association's
Racial Disparity Project. For more information about the Budget For
Justice Coalition's campaign, call K.L. Shannon.