cannabisnews.com: Police to Work Overtime on Drug Arrests Police to Work Overtime on Drug Arrests Posted by FoM on January 21, 2000 at 09:09:04 PT By William K. Rashbaum Source: New York Times In an effort to stop the crime rate from creeping up, the Police Department plans to spend about $20 million in overtime to put more than 400 additional narcotics officers on the streets and increase the number of daily drug arrests, several police and city officials said yesterday. The plan was developed after the 1999 year-end crime statistics showed that the murder rate, which had been declining since 1992, had begun to rise. There were 667 homicides last year, a 6 percent increase from the 629 in 1998. The narcotics effort is rooted in a belief among top city and police officials that crime drops as low-level drug arrests increase, a theory they contend is borne out by the dramatic drops in overall reported crime from 1993 to 1998, when the number of misdemeanor drug arrests nearly quadrupled. Felony and misdemeanor drug arrests declined last year by 12.6 percent, to 78,426 -- an average of 215 a day -- from 89,712 in 1998. The police hope that the plan will yield an additional 200 to 300 drug arrests a day, and have told court officials to be prepared to handle the additional arraignments once the program is in place, court and law enforcement officials said. One senior law enforcement official said most of the arrests under the new program are expected to be for misdemeanor drug violations. A city official and the law enforcement official said the plan was proposed by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani last Friday during his weekly meeting at City Hall with Police Commissioner Howard Safir. A spokesman for the mayor did not respond to questions about the program last night. The plan's expenses will be included in the mayor's proposed budget, to be released later this month, said a city official with knowledge of the program's financing. In recent years, the Police Department's annual overtime budget has ranged from $96 million to $147 million. Under the plan, called Operation Condor, an additional 52 narcotics teams, consisting of a police sergeant, five investigators and two undercover officers, will work each day, focusing on low-level street sales and buy-and-bust operations, several officials said. They will be supported by other narcotics officers and detectives. "They're going to be low-level street arrests, mostly misdemeanors," the law enforcement official said. "It's just to try and cut down on the increase in crime and reduce it, if that's possible." The plan will not involve assigning additional officers to narcotics details, but will instead involve overtime work by officers on their days off, the official said. The plan is to focus on areas in the city where crime, and homicides in particular, is increasing. A city official said the extra officers would focus on southeast Queens, northern Manhattan, Harlem, the Lower East Side and the South Bronx, among other areas. Another law enforcement official said 4 teams would be devoted to the southern half of Manhattan and 10 to the northern half. Published: January 21, 2000Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company Cannabis News Police Related Articles:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/police.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #3 posted by Susan on March 14, 2000 at 02:34:34 PT: Arrest legal? Help Could anyone tell me if my son's arrest was legal? He wasan occupant in the back seat of a car. There was a driverand another occupant in the front seat. The car belonged toa friend of the driver. They were pulled over for failureto wear seatbelts (front seat passengers). The police searched the car and found 92grams marijuana, and a baggieof valiums in a box under the front seat driver side. My sonsaid he had no knowledge of the drugs. He was charged with2 felonys, possession of cds with intent to distribute andpossession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Can the police charge him with this when it was not on his person and he did not own the car? [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on January 21, 2000 at 18:23:49 PT They never learn Where will they put all the low-level dealers they catch? On a garbage barge? In salt mines? Ship them off to Madgascar (like the Nazis originally wanted to do to the Jews)? Or will we see the advent of organ-banks depletions being filled by inmates? (Not so farfetched; there was one Southern State that had lawmankers proposing forcible amputations for dealing, and everyone knows that nicotine addict Bill Bennett favored beheading people. Just a short step from that to execution for dealing as a leading provider of 'donor' organs'. Such good, gentle, loving Christian souls the DrugWarriors have)They just don't get it. And they won't, until they receive the same treatment they mete out to their victims. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by J Christen-Mitchell on January 21, 2000 at 17:34:33 PT: Another Theory When will folks notice the obvious? This country's prison population grew from 57,000 at the turn of the century, to 180,000(after dropping during the 60s)when a Watergated Nixon started a diversionary War on Drugs. Would you consider a 1,200% increase a success on the part of our 'just-us' system? Without the War we would have less than 400,000, would we not?...So that's two million Americans incarcerated at a present cost of 37 Billion dollars. If the communists had planned this they would be exultant, not to mention the destruction of the Constitution....and we'll have THREE MILLION PRISONERS IN EIGHT YEARS without a dramatic turnaround. Most, nonviolent drugies or in other words, behind bars for what they MIGHT do...."for each unharmful, gentle soul, misplaced inside a jail. As we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing." B. Dylan [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: