MACON CRACKING DOWN ON DRUGS

Police Work Overtime To Enforce Chief's New Drug Initiative

Officers with flashlights canvass the large back yard of a Unionville home,
searching for drugs and paraphernalia. They stumble onto a large Ziploc bag
with the goods, including a scale, in the trunk of an older model, seatless
Chevrolet.

"Do you know how to call in a vehicle check yet?" Macon police officer
Takeem Witter asks Robert Kosmowski, a third-month rookie. Kosmowski makes
the call. The vehicle, registered in Dublin, was reported stolen months
ago. In the trunk, officers discover a box of hollow-point bullets for a
.22-caliber handgun, but no weapon.

One officer's flashlight reflects on two tags, one covering another, on a
vehicle next to the Chevrolet and Kentucky tags on a late-model Cadillac in
the yard of abandoned vehicles.

The search is a part of Police Chief Rodney Monroe's new citywide drug
initiative, launched May 12.

The crackdown targets areas surrounding 28 streets where police believe
criminal activity is high. In the program's first two weeks, police had
made at least 88 drug cases and issued more than 100 traffic citations.
Monroe is paying officers to work overtime from $85,000 of reallocated
funding and grants.

"This is meant to deter Macon's illegal drug sales," Monroe said. "We have
never tried this, but I believe it would work."

Officers are focusing on upper-to mid-level drug trafficking, as well as
street-level sales.

Their tactics include "jump outs" at convenience stores, where officers
suddenly emerge from unmarked vehicles; "reverses," in which officers take
on the role of drug dealers; and vehicle "takedowns," or traffic stops.

As part of the crackdown, officers have made cases involving prescription
drugs, alcohol violations and prostitution.

Though police action may slow drug activity, many residents subjected to
the searches aren't pleased. The young adult occupants of the Unionville
home complain during the two-hour search.

"They always come here," says a young woman at the house.

"I'm tired of this," she says, adjusting a toddler on her hip. "I can't
wait to get my own place and move out of here."

Officers wait until 1 a.m. for the arrival of three tow trucks to remove
the stolen vehicles. With one more sweep of flashlights around the yard,
they discover a red lawn mower, which had been reported stolen, hidden in a
corner by an above-ground pool.

"This home has been visited four times for the year. We've run into a
fencing operation here. We expect to make at least three arrests because of
this visit," said police Sgt. Robert Schwartz.

The unit's nighttime activities, which includes raiding wooded areas, have
put a damper on the city's drug activity, said police Sgt. Duncan Matthews,
a task force leader.

"A lot of the information comes from citizens," said Macon police Lt. Matt
Gazafy, who heads the city's drug task force.

Crack, or rock cocaine, seems to be the city's drug of choice, police say,
but methamphetamine and marijuana also are in demand.

"The rock is very severe in Macon," said police Sgt. James Swift, who
oversees the drug initiative in precincts 3 and 4. "You can get as little
or as much as you want."

Swift said there's no shortage in either the city's supply or demand for crack.

"Street-level dealers are plentiful. There's enough people buying to meet
the supply," he said. "We are targeting every drug dealer and user in Macon."

Macon is void of turf battles among dealers, Swift said. And since the city
is small enough that folks know each other, it's not unusual for dealers to
borrow from one another, he said.

"They take loans from each other. One will hit another up one week and pay
back in supply the next week," Swift said.

Monroe said that although street-corner transactions still are a problem in
the city, those sales have declined.

"Most sellers are using dwellings or vehicles to conduct business," he said.

Monroe, a former assistant police chief in Washington, D.C., said Macon's
drug problem cannot be compared in magnitude to that of the nation's
capital. However, with Interstates 75 and 16 meeting here, a large volume
of drugs does pass through the city.

"Millions of dollars in cash and drugs travel through Macon by way of the
interstate system," Monroe said.