A Winnable War in the Streets

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United Press International, June 19, 1991 By Erica Lebherz

Report: Drug sales strong in nation's largest cities

Open-air drug markets are doing a booming business in the suburbs and the inner cities, according to a new report Wednesday by the American Alliance for Rights and Responsibilities.

The report quotes police from the nation's 17 largest cities as saying the local drug market situation is getting worse or not improving, with more than 1,500 open-air markets in their cities.

Fencing off vacant lots, getting citizens involved in anti-drug activity and ostracizing drug dealers would go a long way toward wiping out the open-air markets, said the report written by Roger Conner and Patrick Burns.
''We will still have a drug problem,'' Burns said in a statement released with the report. ''But by forcing drug sales off the street and into the private referral marketplace, we can insulate children, the elderly, recovering addicts and entire communities from the collateral damage now inflicted by the drug trade.''

Conner and Burns told reporters Wednesday that those cities and neighborhoods that have been most successful at eradicating street drug markets are those in which police, politicians and citizens have banded together to remove marketing space, broadcast community intolerance for drug activity and remove the sense of impunity that currently surrounds drug markets.

Several cities, including Seattle, Tampa, Fla., and Alexandria, Va., have passed legislation making it illegal to loiter with the intention of selling drugs. New York, Boston and other cities have passed padlock laws, which require authorities to padlock or otherwise secure vacant lots or buildings in which there have been several drug arrests and convictions.

In Yakima, Wash., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., city authorities send postcards to owners of cars seen cruising drug markets that warn them that their cars have been seen in areas where there is a great deal of violent crime, prostitution and drug activity.
Although some cities are implementing the recommended anti-drug practices, Conner said many of America's largest cities have not yet adopted all of them.

''Political leaders in big cities have not communicated to police that eradicating open-air drug markets is a priority,'' he said.

The report said, ''None of the cities surveyed has launched an aggressive anti-drug market campaign using all of the resources and techniques available.

''In many cases, the local city council has failed to pass the kind of legislation needed for the police to take decisive action. In other cases, the police have failed to aggressively use existing laws and techniques to combat flagrant drug activity. As a consequence, 11 of the 17 cities surveyed, 65 percent, reported that their local drug market problem was not getting better or was getting worse.''

Of the cities surveyed, the report indicated that the drug problem is getting worse in Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The drug problem stayed the same in Dallas, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., Phoenix and San Antonio. Cities showing improvement were Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The results of police department surveys showed the following estimates of the number of drug markets: Baltimore, 35-45; Chicago, 251- 300; Columbus, 11-20; Dallas, 35-45; Detroit, 46-60; Houston, 251-300; Indianapolis, 4-10; Jacksonville, 151-175; Los Angeles, 121-150; Milwaukee, 251-300; New York, 251-300; Philadelphia, 100-120; Phoenix, 11-20; San Antonio, 11-20; San Francisco, 35-45; Washington, D.C., 46- 60.