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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:11 am
Time: 12:11 am
Results for open-air drug markets
3 results foundAuthor: Corsaro, Nicholas Title: An Evaluation of the Nashville Drug Market Initiative (DMI) Pulling Levers Strategy Summary: In March 2008, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD), in cooperation with other city agencies, including the District Attorney, Public Defender, the Mayor’s Office, the Sheriff’s Department, social service providers, as well as faith-based and community leaders launched an innovative effort to eliminate open-air drug dealing and thereby significantly reduce crime in the McFerrin Park neighborhood. The initiative drew upon the experience of a similar effort in High Point, North Carolina as well as promising efforts to reduce gun crime that have been part of the national Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) and Drug Market Intervention (DMI) programs. The goal of the Nashville initiative is to break the cycle whereby drug dealers are arrested and prosecuted only to be replaced by another group of dealers. Rather, the strategy seeks permanent elimination of the drug dealing with corresponding reduction in crime and improvement in the quality of life within the neighborhood. The Nashville strategy involved a four-stage process. The initial phase known as the Identification stage involved systematic analysis of crime data indicating specific areas within Nashville that were victimized by high levels of drug dealing and associated crime. The McFerrin Park neighborhood was selected due to its high rate of violent, property, and drug crime as well as its high volume of calls for police assistance. Following selection of the neighborhood, MNPD began work on the second stage, the Preparation phase, which involved obtaining ‘buy in’ from law enforcement, prosecution, social service, and community personnel. After key members of the initiative agreed to move the strategy forward, twenty-six individuals were identified as being actively involved in drug sales. Evidence was gathered with the result of very strong prosecutorial cases being established against all twenty-six individuals. Of these offenders, a total of twenty were deemed to be chronic and serious offenders with a history of criminal violence. These individuals were prosecuted. The other six, however, were judged less serious offenders and were offered a second chance. The third phase of the intervention involved the Notification stage whereby the small group of offenders was informed that they could be prosecuted but were going to be offered a second chance with the contingency that their drug dealing stops and that the individuals remain crime free. The notification included participation of the offender’s families as well as key social service providers who expressed their desire to see the notified individuals become productive members of the community. A variety of social services and social support were offered to the offenders. The final phase consisted of Resource Delivery and follow-up to provide support intended to help the small group of prior offenders avoid a return to drug dealing and crime. Additionally, a variety of efforts were taken to improve community collaboration with police and the overall quality of life within the neighborhood. The impact evaluation consisted of comparing the trends in violent, property, and drug-related crime as well as calls for police assistance prior to- and after the intervention. We examined over five years of data for the McFerrin Park target area, the adjoining or contiguous areas, and the remainder of Davidson County for an overall trend comparison. Using a systematic time series analysis, the findings revealed that the target area experienced a statistically significant and sustained decrease of 2.5 property crimes per month (-28.4%), a reduction of nearly 55.5% in monthly narcotics offenses, and a decrease of 36.8% of drug equipment violations, as well as a significant reduction in calls for police assistance by nearly 18.1% per month following the intervention. The adjoining area experienced similar statistically significant and sustained declines in offense and calls for service that was observed in the target community, indicating that immediate crime displacement did not occur but in fact a diffusion of benefits was seen in the adjacent neighborhood. Comparatively, while these same offenses declined in the remainder of the greater Nashville area at the time of the intervention, this rate of change was neither statistically significant nor was as substantive (less than 10% for all outcomes modeled). Thus, the results indicate that there was a major and sustained decline in serious and drug related offenses as well as calls for service in the areas where the Drug Market Initiative (DMI) intervention was implemented, above and beyond any decline that was observed in the remainder of Davidson County. These findings suggest that the DMI intervention aimed at drug-offending in the McFerrin Park neighborhood was the driving force behind the decline observed in the target and contiguous areas. Open-air drug dealing is associated with high levels of crime and disorder and quality of community life. For years police and local residents in many communities have witnessed a cycle whereby drug dealers are arrested only to be replaced by another group of individuals drawn to the lure of the illegal drug economy. The DMI represents an innovative, community policing and problem solving effort to break this cycle and significantly reduce or eliminate the open-air drug market. Chronic and violent drug sellers are prosecuted but less serious offenders, those likely to serve as replacements in the drug market, are provided the opportunity to avoid prosecution as well as social support to pursue legitimate opportunities outside the illegal economy. NMPD joins police departments in cities including High Point, North Carolina, Rockford, Illinois, Providence, Rhode Island, Hempstead, New York, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin that have implemented the DMI. Nashville represents the largest urban jurisdiction to have subjected the DMI to evaluation. Hence, the positive findings from this evaluation have important implications for other neighborhoods of Nashville as well as for cities across the United States. Details: East Lansing, MI: School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 2009. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Market Intervention Working Paper: Accessed August 23, 2010 at: http://www1.cj.msu.edu/~outreach/psn/DMI/NashvilleEvaluation.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www1.cj.msu.edu/~outreach/psn/DMI/NashvilleEvaluation.pdf Shelf Number: 119669 Keywords: Drug EnforcementDrug OffendersOpen-Air Drug MarketsPulling Levers Strategy |
Author: Harvey, Lynn K. Title: The New Hope Initiative: A Collaborative Approach to Closing an Open-air Drug Market and a Blueprint for Other Communities Summary: This report describes a collaborative community-based approach used to shut down open-air drug markets. It documents the logic, the process and consequences of applying this approach in Winston-Salem, NC. The case study is intended to provide other communities with the basic guidelines for implementing similar strategies in a locally relevant and appropriate way. Details: Winston-Salem, NC: Department of Social Sciences and Center for Community Safety, Winston-Salem State University, 2005. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 11, 2010 at: http://www.wssu.edu/NR/rdonlyres/1BF7A584-539A-41A6-B860-94EED7C3FD2C/0/NewHopeBluePrint.pdf Year: 2005 Country: United States URL: http://www.wssu.edu/NR/rdonlyres/1BF7A584-539A-41A6-B860-94EED7C3FD2C/0/NewHopeBluePrint.pdf Shelf Number: 118557 Keywords: Community ParticipationDrug Abuse and CrimeDrug ControlDrug OffendersOpen-Air Drug Markets |
Author: Dandurand, Yvon Title: Confident Policing in a Troubled Community: Evaluation of the Vancouver Police Department's City-wide Enforcement Team Initiative: A Report prepared for the City of VAncouver and the Vancouver Agreement Coordination Unit Summary: This evaluation, sponsored by the Vancouver Agreement Coordination Unit, was designed to assess the impact of the Vancouver Police Department’s City-Wide Enforcement Team (CET) initiative implemented in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) area of the city during the during the months of April-September, 2003. The CET followed a number of previous police interventions in the area that targeted the drug trade and was initiated after a planning process that included an unsuccessful attempt to secure additional fiscal support from the City Council. The CET had three primary objectives: 1) to bring order to a disordered community; 2) to disrupt the open drug market; and, 3) to disrupt the flow of stolen property into the DTES. These objectives were to be achieved by providing an enhanced police presence in the area in an attempt to disperse drug dealers and their user-clients and, in doing so, reduce the levels of disorder and increase safety and security in the area. The CET represented a dramatic departure from the previous “containment” approach wherein policing services were provided to the DTES on a primarily reactive basis. Senior police personnel viewed the initiative as a long-delayed fulfillment of their legislated mandate to provide full policing services to the residents of the DTES. To assess the effectiveness of the CET, in-depth interviews were conducted community residents, business owners, incarcerated offenders, health care professionals, the police officers who were assigned to the DTES at the time the CET was implemented, and IV drug users. In addition, systematic field observations were conducted in the DTES during a three month period and focus group sessions were conducted with community residents, persons involved in the delivery of social services, sex trade workers, and members of NGOs in the DTES. Statistical information from the Vancouver Police Department Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD), the PRIME record system, the pawnshop data base, as well as from other agencies, including Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, B.C. Ambulance Service, the Coroner’s Office, and hospital admission data were retrieved and analyzed. The results of the analysis indicate that the CET was successful in disrupting the open drug market, reducing the general levels of social disorder, and enhancing the general feelings of safety and security among persons who live and work in the DTES. The CET was less successful in pursuing drug dealers and the associated criminal activity that was displaced into other areas in District 2 and into adjacent police districts. There is some evidence that the drug market in the DTES adapted to the increased police presence, becoming more orderly, dispersed and moving out of the public realm into private locations. The price and availability of drugs in the area were not significantly impacted. Drug dealers and their clients who were displaced to other areas created localized crime “hot spots” of drug dealing and associated disorder, although this occurred in the context of overall declines in drug and public disorder offences in all police districts in the city during the last nine months of 2003 as compared with the same time period in 2002. With respect to potential detrimental effects of the initiative, there is no evidence that the CET had a measurable impact on the number of fatal drug overdoses in the DTES or adversely affected IV drug users with respect to their access to HIV prevention, needle exchange and other services. Nor is there evidence that the risk behaviour of IV drug users was influenced by the CET initiative in a way that noticeably increased public health risks. The data that were gathered for the evaluation did not allow a determination of whether the CET was successful in interfering with the flow of stolen property into the DTES, although the stolen property market was forced to become more discrete and more of the stolen property may have been fenced out of the immediate DTES area. Police officers, community residents, IV drug users, and others who offered an opinion on the subject shared the view that the stolen property market had not been significantly reduced. Senior police personnel, based on their observations, believed that the flow of stolen property as it existed prior to the CET had been impacted and cited the Extract data to support their view that the quality and value of stolen goods flowing into the DTES had declined. The attempt by the project team to assess the impact of the CET on the stolen property market in the DTES was hindered by methodological difficulties. There was general support among community residents, business owners, sex trade workers, and IV drug users for the increased police presence in the area and with the performance of the police. There was also an expressed desire that the police enhance their relations with the community through expanded foot patrols and increased training to better equip officers to effectively police the area. Some concern was expressed about the policing styles of some officers assigned to the area. Residents were divided as to whether the overall quality of life in the community had improved, although their overall feelings of safety and security had increased. The effectiveness of the CET was compromised to some extent by insufficient coordination and joint planning with other agencies and organizations in the DTES, a lack of departmental resources, and by some inconsistency in the policing strategies used by officers in the DTES. The results of the study also indicated that the CET would have benefited from a comprehensive communication strategy to increase the awareness of community residents and business owners and others involved in the delivery of services in the area. A major limitation of this evaluation is that the survey interview data were gathered six months after the CET initiative was implemented and it can be expected that this short time frame is sufficient only to capture certain facets of any changes in community life in the DTES. It is difficult to determine the extent to which medium and long-term changes are occurring and whether these changes are permanent or ephemeral. It is also unrealistic to expect that the dynamics of life in a community, where crime and disorder had become deeply entrenched, would be significantly and measurably altered in six months as a consequence of one initiative such as the CET. It can be expected that the dynamics of life in the DTES will continue to evolve and that specific initiatives, such as the CET, will evolve as well. The special initiative did serve a number of purposes, one of which was for the VPD, as an organization, to accept and acknowledge its responsibility to challenge its own long-standing policy of “containment” and to move proactively to provide effective policing services to the DTES community and to attempt to improve the overall quality of life for all of its residents. Details: Abbotsford, BC: University College of the Fraser Valley, 2004. 251p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 29, 2010 at: http://www.vancouveragreement.ca/wp-content/uploads/ConfidentPolicing2004sm.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Canada URL: http://www.vancouveragreement.ca/wp-content/uploads/ConfidentPolicing2004sm.pdf Shelf Number: 120152 Keywords: DisplacementDrug DealersDrug EnforcementOpen-Air Drug MarketsPolice-Community RelationsPolicing (Vancouver, Canada)Public DisorderStolen Goods |