MIAMI POLICE ARE COMMITTED TO ROOTING OUT ILLEGAL DRUGS

Re W. King's May 25 Saturday Speakup letter Police ignore Overtown drug
dealers: King says that the police are doing nothing to stop drug
activities in the area of the 200 block of Northwest 12th Street.

Be assured that the Miami Police Department not only is concerned, but
aggressively addressing the drug problem affecting our community. We are
targeting not just Overtown but all of the neighborhoods in the city. For
this reason, the police department has refocused its narcotic-enforcement
efforts to attack the street-level drug trade.

Why? Because those drug transactions are the most visible to our citizens,
they contribute the most to other crimes and they affect the quality of
life of our neighborhoods.

In the past few months, the Miami Police Department has closed the first
six neighborhood-specific operations, including one in Overtown, that we
are conducting throughout Miami. As a result of the those operations, we
made 347 drug-related arrests of distributors, sellers and buyers.

Yes, there is a drug problem in Overtown, but I can tell you that it is
getting better every day even though we still have a way to go. A
significant level of crime is directly related to drugs, and our overall
initiatives to decrease crime are, thereby, also playing a role in reducing
drug activity. Fewer drugs equals less crime.

I am happy to report that due to the hard work of our police officers and
the efforts of many dedicated individuals in Overtown, crime in this
community has been reduced by 33 percent from 1993 to 2001 with an
additional 10 percent decrease in the first four months of 2002.

We at the Miami Police Department realize that our battle against crime
must be fought jointly with city residents, and that it is a daily challenge.

We cannot and we will not rest on our laurels of past crime reductions.

RAUL MARTINEZ

Chief of Police

Miami