Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2008
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2008 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Brad Schmidt, The Oregonian
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217 (Drug-Free Zones)

GRESHAM: NEW DRUG-FREE ZONES

Crime - Police Officials Say That an Expansion Will Help Clean Up Two 
Areas and That Exclusions Can Be Fair

After watching the metro area's only drug-free zone recover from a 
slow start and lax enforcement in Rockwood, the Gresham Police 
Department is seeking to expand the controversial program.

Police hope to target two new areas: East Burnside Street at 162nd 
Avenue and Northeast Eighth Street at Kelly Avenue. Both have been 
home to some of Gresham's most violent crimes -- the 162nd area to 
summertime shootings and Kelly Avenue to the November baseball-bat 
beating of a 71-year-old man.

With the Rockwood zone set to expire in March, city leaders had 
expressed hesitation in a renewal but now say they support expansion.

"I'm confident in what they're planning to do," city Councilor 
Shirley Craddick said. "I'm sure I'll scrutinize it more than I did 
before, thinking it was the magic to address the drug activity in the area."

When the council approved the program in September 2006, police said 
they expected drug citations in the area to increase. In fact, they 
dropped 24 percent. And police failed to take full advantage of the 
zone's main feature: forbidding a suspect from returning for 90 days.

Before Oct. 1, officers made 70 arrests and excluded just 10 percent 
of those people. "That's unacceptable," Mayor Shame Bemis said.

Since then, enforcement has jumped. Police have made 46 arrests and 
excluded 75 percent of eligible offenders.

Police Chief Carla Piluso acknowledged the program initially "got off 
the radar screen," but said refresher training has reinvigorated 
officers. With the program now showing stronger enforcement, Piluso 
said she thinks expansion would help reduce problems in other high-crime areas.

Piluso, who has been with the police department nearly 30 years, said 
she would feel uncomfortable allowing her own teenage daughter to 
spend time alone in Rockwood and the other two potential drug-free zones.

"I think they can become areas where our kids can wander through, 
where they can wait to catch the (MAX) trains," she said. "They can 
become vital areas. But we need to clean them up."

Cleaning up blighted and troublesome neighborhoods has long been the 
mantra behind drug-free zones. Portland first introduced the program 
in 1992 to target street-level drug dealing. As in Gresham, anyone 
excluded from the area cannot return for 90 days, except for 
pre-approved reasons. Violators can be arrested for trespassing.

Portland's drug-free program faced numerous legal battles and 
revisions through the years. Gresham's ordinance was modeled after 
Portland's. Gresham has seen one person recently challenge an 
exclusion order, but not the program.

Zones in Portland ultimately met their demise Oct. 1, however, after 
a study found that African Americans received exclusions 68 percent 
of the time compared with 54 percent for whites. Gresham's 
enforcement has not produced similar results. But critics remain.

David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties 
Union of Oregon, contends it's unconstitutional to ban from an area 
someone who is charged with a crime but not convicted.

He also said drug-free zones typically displace rather than dissolve 
criminal activity. When the problem moves, he said, so does enforcement.

"There's a tendency to add areas, expand areas. The natural extent of 
that would just be to make the entire city of Gresham an exclusion 
zone," Fidanque said, tongue firmly in cheek.

The proposed 162nd zone would run into the existing Rockwood zone, 
creating a combined span of roughly 35 blocks. But some residents 
near Eighth and Kelly worry existing problems will shift into their 
neighborhood.

Stuart Cullins, 38, lives at the Elliott House apartments, where the 
sign out front reads, "A nice place to live."

As proposed, the new drug-free zone would end one street to the 
north, making his block the first where drug dealers could conduct 
business but not receive an exclusion.

"I'm definitely worried about that," Cullins said.

Police will meet with area residents at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Rockwood 
and again Jan. 21 near downtown Gresham to discuss the program and 
seek feedback. Sgt. Mike LeDuc, who oversees the program, said he is 
studying complaints about zones in Portland and is looking to 
establish checks to ensure exclusions do not show racial disparity.

Rockwood's zone renewal will be reviewed by the City Council on March 
4. The new proposals could be evaluated by the council then, too, if 
prepared by police.

But LeDuc said the department will proceed only if it finds community backing.

"In this kind of program," he said, "you have to have support or else 
it's just not going to work." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake