POLICE WENT BY THE BOOK IN CHEEK ROAD DRUG RAID

I have been amazed at the response from the NAACP and others in reference
to the raid that took place at 1835 Cheek Road. I'm a uniform patrol
sergeant for the Durham Police Department, and I work the North-East
Central Durham area, which includes 1835 Cheek Road. I have been on the
force for 15 years, and there have only been three locations that I can
think are worse than 1835 Cheek Road.

If you ever watched the movie "New Jack City" starring Wesley Snipes as
Nino Brown, then you know what I'm talking about. I had never felt as much
frustration than when watching lookouts holler "man down!" every time we
tried to enter 1835 Cheek Road for calls or other services. Upon spotting
our patrol vehicles, drug dealers in the parking lots ran to designated
apartments to hide themselves, their weapons and their drugs. For the first
time, I ordered my squad not to go to 1835 Cheek Road unless another patrol
car was with them.

If ever a community needed help, 1835 Cheek Road did. I was one of many
officers who asked our Organized Crime Division for help. I'm well known
throughout the community as a fair-minded officer. I will put those in jail
who need to go, and I will assist those who need help. I know in my heart
that the officers who participated in the Cheek Road raid did it by the book.

The underworld of drug dealers is a dangerous world; it is not a place
where you tiptoe through the tulips. The fact that the mayor and the news
media were there should show the public that the Durham Police Department's
intentions were honorable. Since the raid, many communities plagued by drug
crimes are asking the same for their communities. I hope the NAACP and the
city of Durham can truly focus on the real problem in North-East Central
Durham: the continual cycle of poverty, broken homes and hopelessness.

The writer is a sergeant in the Durham Police Department.

H.D. ALEXANDER Jr.

Durham