Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 408 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: APRIL 2016 W hen it comes to drug use and abuse as a public safety concern – almost everything is changing. In addition to voters in many states approving leg- islation decriminalizing marijuana, strategies and procedures in law enforce- ment circles are changing as well. If you read APB, you already know about Chief Leonard Campanello in Gloucester, Massachusetts and the waves he’s making with his impressive opioid addiction program. In Baltimore, the police approach to the costly and expensive failures of the so-called “war on drugs” is changing as well. Anyonewho everwatched HBO’s “The Wi re ” w i l l understand the thinking behind the changes. Baltimore p o l i c e s a y they’re shift- ing gears in drug enforcement. The agency now wants to focus more on large-scale, violent players in the drug trade and waste less time locking up addicts. The result of the changes have prompted a barrage of headlines like this one: “Drug arrests drop by nearly 50 percent last year in Balti- more!” According to an article in the Baltimore Sun, po- lice didn’t just arrest fewer people for marijuana but for heroin and cocaine as well. “We’re reinventing a pro- cess,” Deputy Police Com- missioner Dean Palmere told Sun reporters. “Times change, policing strategies change, cultures change within major cities, and you have to continually alter the fluid processes of dealing with crime.” Baltimore Police Commis- sioner Kevin Davis says he wants to use limited police resources to go after those who destroy neighborhoods and intimidate residents. Some of this is related to the Freddie Gray death, but not all of it. Drug enforce- ment is a rapidly changing work in progress in many parts of the country. Traditional drug warriors say that the evolution in Baltimore is wrong-headed and probably dangerous. Anthony Barksdale, the former acting commissioner, says that once you start messing with drug arrests, all other police work suffers. “How many opportunities of gathering intelligence are lost now because cops are saying, ‘Oh, a joint? That’s bull——’?” Barksdale said. “If you don’t have the basic in- telligence of the drug game coming into the detectives or coming into your spe- cialized units, you’re lost in Baltimore. You’re done.” Some observers have sug- gested that the changing face of drug enforcement mirrors the changing face of drug use and abuse in terms of demographics. The fact that the average drug user and overdose vic- tim doesn’t look like they used to in terms of race and age is also a factor. “There’s strong recogni- tion that we aren’t going to arrest our way out of the problem,” said Kurt Schmoke, former mayor and now president of the Uni- versity of Baltimore. “It’s no longer a problem of ‘those people.’ It’s everybody’s problem.” Baltimore police are work- ing on an experimental program that they hope to launch this year to divert low-level drug offenders into treatment and support ser- vices in order to keep them out of the costly criminal justice system. If lots of drug arrests and convictions has a positive influence on public safety, Baltimore and other cities would be extremely safe places. “The Wire” also would have been a much different show.The numbers game continues regardless. If you don’t have the basic intelligence of the drug game coming into the detectives or coming into your specialized units, you’re lost in Baltimore. You’re done. At the end of the day it’s about asking tough ques- tions about strategies and results. “We’re not going to ar- rest our way out of a crime crisis,” Deputy Police Com- missioner Dean Palmere told Sun reporters. “It’s not a numbers game. We’ve been in a numbers game in the past and, frankly, it didn’t get us to where we want to be.” I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. – Dwight D. Eisenhower This isn’t working CENTER FOR PUBLIC SAFETY CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS WWW.SHERIFFS.ORG/CPS1