CHEEK ROAD RAID: STILL ROOM FOR DOUBT

There's room for doubt concerning the conduct of the drug raid that the
Durham Police Department carried out at Cheek Road Apartments in February.
All of the criminal charges that resulted from the raid will be dropped,
court officials said last week. That decision came after Superior Court
Judge Orlando F. Hudson declared the raid unconstitutional after viewing an
unaired portion of some WTVD news footage taken during the raid.

In his order, Hudson faulted the police for conducting a search of an
entire neighborhood, rather than issuing warrants for individual
residences. He said some of the police actions amounted to "criminal
conduct," citing among several examples officers' use of stun grenades,
even when they knew women and infants were inside certain apartments.

The Police Department appears to have made some mistakes in this raid. But
a failed or mishandled operation does not make the Durham Police Department
the Gestapo in this case. All things considered, we're willing to give the
Police Department the benefit of the doubt in this case.

While Hudson saw what he considered police misconduct on the tape, an
unidentified Cheek Road resident who spoke on the tape said she thought the
police raid was good because it might help rid her neighborhood of drugs
and guns, according to Herald-Sun courthouse reporter John Stevenson, who
viewed the tape.

Others echoed that resident's sentiments. In a meeting with City Council
members soon after the raid, a member of a Partners Against Crime group
called for more operations such as the Cheek Road raid to make the streets
safer.

Obviously, there was widespread support for the purpose, if not the manner,
of this raid.

And if Durham police officers had malicious intentions in this raid, they
certainly made no effort to hide them. In fact, the police appear to have
invited several television stations to film the raid. Even Mayor Bill Bell
was present for part of the operation. While it may have proven to be the
department's downfall in this case, the public openness displayed in this
raid was commendable.

The next time it seeks to clean up a drug-infested area, the Police
Department will have to be more fastidious with its warrants and its
methods - as it should be. Police dubbed the Cheek Road raid Operation
TAPS, for The Aggressive Police Strategy.

The department must refine, but not abandon, that strategy.