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In 1829, Sir Robert Peel,
known as the father of
policing, created the
Metropolitan Police of
England. According to Peel,
the real key for policing
was the police are the
people and the people are
the police. Peel believed
that prevention of crime
could be accomplished
without intruding into the
lives of citizens. When Peel
established the Metropolitan
Police, his most effective
public safety tool was foot
patrol, known then and now
as a beat.
POLICING AND
INEFFECTIVE
PRACTICE
IN THE MIDST
OF THE DRUG WAR
64
James Q. Wilson and George Kellings article, Broken Windows: The
Police and Neighborhood Safety called for a return to the nineteenth-
century style of policing in which police maintained a presence in the
community by walking beats, getting to know citizens, and establishing
the feeling of public safety and trust. As many police agencies of
today attempt to return to these practices, getting officers out of the
impersonalized cars and on the beat, there exists one enormous
barrier known as the drug war.
What exactly did Baltimore police Major (Bunny) Colvin, in the HBO series
The Wire mean when he said, the drug war ruined this job?Anyone
adequately versed in sound policing principles, including Peel, will expound
upon the importance of public trust for success in public safety. What Major
Colvin meant is that the drug war is responsible for the erosion of the
publics trust in policing. It has put the police against the very citizens they
have sworn to protect (an us versus them mentality and culture). In the
eyes of many police ofcers, the drug war has categorized a great number
of citizens as criminals. In the eyes of many citizens, mainly the poor of
urban America, the police have become an occupying force and foe.
In the 1970s at the beginning of what we refer to as the War on Drugs,
enforcing the nations drug laws was the primary responsibility of the
federal government since the passing of the 1914 Harrison Narcotics
Act. It was President Nixon who bribed local law enforcement with
federal funds, introducing them to the all out ofensive on drugs. As it
is today, the primary enforcement of our get tough drug laws was
isolated to poor communities of color resulting in a signicant rise in
drug related arrests. In four decades, our prison population has ballooned
from a half million to 2.3 million prisoners, primarily due to drug related
arrests. Blacks, 13.5 percent of the nations population, use and sell drugs
at virtually the same rate as whites; however, blacks are 37 percent of
those arrested for drug crimes.
Disparate enforcement isnt the only reason for mistrust in policing.
Corruption, mistreatment, brutality and the trampling of constitutional
rights are a few others. As police feel the political and internal pressure
to over enforce our drug laws, they search people and their afects without
warrants and without lawful consent. In doing so, they disrespect, belittle
and sometimes physically abuse people. Property is seized with no
charges placed, in direct violation of the Fifth Amendment (the right to
due process). Many have complained that all the police care about in
their communities is drug enforcement and that they respond slowly to
and make light of crimes of violence, such as domestic violence. Because
of this level of mistrust and loss of respect, many crimes of violence
(rapes, robberies, assaults, etc.) go unreported.
According to Peel, when individuals have mistrust and little or no respect
towards the police, they will ignore the requests or demands of ofcers.
This can lead to an ofcer having to use force in order to gain control of
a situation, which can also lead to arrests, serious injuries, and even death.
I suggest a not-so-new strategy, one that my grandparents quickly adopted
in 1933 when the United States ended alcohol prohibition in order to
reduce corruption, violent crime and cost. I believe that if we end todays
drug prohibition, our neighborhoods would be considerably safer and
police could truly become one with the community. Relationships and
trust would take hold and true public safety would blossom. 65
In 1936, twenty-two years after passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act,
an outstanding police authority had reached the same conclusion as I
have. August Vollmer, former chief of police in Berkeley, California,
former professor of police administration at the Universities of Chicago
and California, author of a leading textbook on police science, and past
president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police wrote:
Stringent laws, vigorous prosecution, and imprisonment of addicts
and peddlers have proved not only useless and enormously expensive
as means of correcting this evil, but they are also unjustiably and
unbelievably cruel in their application to the unfortunate drug
victims. Repression has driven this vice underground and produced
the narcotic smugglers and supply agents, who have grown wealthy
out of this evil practice and who, by devious methods, have stimulated
trafc in drugs. Finally, and not the least of the evils associated with
repression, the helpless addict has been forced to resort to crime in
order to get money for the drug which is absolutely indispensable
for his comfortable existence....
Drug addiction, like prostitution and like liquor, is not a police problem;
it never has been and never can be solved by policemen. It is rst and
last a medical problem, and if there is a solution it will be discovered not
by policemen, but by scientic and competently trained medical experts
whose sole objective will be the reduction and possible eradication of
this devastating appetite. There should be intelligent treatment of the
incurables in outpatient clinics, hospitalization of those not too far gone.
Over time, before I ever heard of Sir Robert Peel and Chief August Vollmer,
these became my views. Maybe if we taught this type of policing history
within the walls of our many police academies, we could end the most
destructive public policy in this country since slavery.
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I BELIEVE THAT
IF WE END TODAYS
DRUG PROHIBITION,
OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
WOULD BE CONSIDERABLY
SAFER AND POLICE
COULD TRULY BECOME
ONE WITH THE
COMMUNITY.
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Neill Franklin
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST
PROHIBITION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Over his 33-year career, Neill Franklin watched
hardworking and dedicated fellow cops die in the
line of re enforcing policies that dont do any good.
After 23 years with the Maryland State Police, includ-
ing as an undercover narc and as the
head trainer for drug enforcement,
Neill was recruited by the Baltimore
Police Department to reorganize its
education and training division. He
now leads LEAP as the organizations
executive director.
DRUG ADDICTION,
LIKE PROSTITUTION
AND LIKE LIQUOR,
IS NOT A POLICE
PROBLEM; IT
NEVER HAS BEEN
AND NEVER CAN
BE SOLVED BY
POLICEMEN. 67