NCJ Number
145168
Journal
Reader's Digest Dated: (July 1991) Pages: 56-60
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the development, operation, and effects of a drug-law enforcement program in Tampa, Fla., that involves police-community cooperation.
Abstract
The development of a cooperative police-community strategy to address drug trafficking in targeted neighborhoods began with the community mobilization efforts of Abe Brown, a minister and dean of students at a Tampa high school. Brown helped form Citizens for a Decent Community. After a year of organizing the black community, Brown presented Tampa's mayor and other local government officials with petitions signed by 4,000 citizens. The petitions demanded action and promised cooperation. Police administrators planned a scheme to increase the police force by 13 percent and organize neighborhood antidrug units. Called QUAD Squads, the units consisted of 41 officers assigned to four city quadrants. Backed by detective units and uniformed patrols, the squads relied on citizen reports to attack the open-air markets and raze abandoned houses used for drug trafficking. Members of the QUAD Squads carry beepers, and citizens have officer beeper numbers to use in reporting drug dealing. The program includes the posting of signs to warn that an area has been targeted as a "high drug activity area." This means that persons and vehicles loitering in the area may be stopped by police. Drug buyers who make purchases from their cars can have their cars seized in forfeiture under Florida law. Drug arrests have increased and drug trafficking has decreased since the program began.