August 15, 2004 Sunday
Trivial Pursuits and Predatory Policing
Falls Church Police
Chief Robert T. Murray imposes a quota on his officers: They must write an
average of three tickets or make three arrests per 12-hour shift. The most
obvious way to fulfill the requirement is to focus on trivial infractions.
"Traffic is a big issue" in his community, says Murray, because
serious crime is not. That may surprise the two men who were assaulted and
robbed recently on Monticello Drive. One victim, who was riding his bicycle to
his Falls Church home, happened upon six suspected gang members as they
brutally assaulted another Falls Church man. After robbing the first victim, these
hoodlums assailed the cyclist and stole his bike. Fairfax County police logged
that incident about 2 a.m. July 30. About the same time, according to other
police reports, criminals were robbing an Arlington business and stealing a car
from Kirkwood Street; breaking into a warehouse and a school in Alexandria; and
stealing another car. Later that day, an Arlington man was robbed at gunpoint
by thieves who shot him -- out of annoyance because he was carrying so little
money -- and then stole his car. And what were Fairfax County police doing that
day? At least some were conducting a sobriety checkpoint in McLean. This
checkpoint produced predictably paltry results -- of the 591 cars that passed
through the blockade between 11 p.m. and 2:15 a.m., police found only three
drivers to cite for driving under the influence. Why, with vicious thugs on the
loose, do police waste time on trivial pursuits and ineffective tactics? It
isn't as though serious crime is hard to find in Northern Virginia. In a single
week earlier this month, Fairfax County police logged 159 cases of larceny and
21 auto thefts. Open-air drug markets -- well known to police -- operate with
impunity. Yet citizens who dislike seeing their taxes wasted have no one but
themselves to blame. We have created a climate that hinders -- even hamstrings
-- effective policing. For instance, the National Drug Intelligence Center
(NDIC), an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, provides stunningly
specific data about the distribution of illegal drugs in Northern Virginia.
"West African and Middle Eastern criminal groups are the primary
transporters of Southwest Asian heroin into Virginia," the NDIC reports.
"Mexican brown powdered heroin and Mexican black tar heroin available in
Virginia typically are transported into the state from southwestern states and
North Carolina by Mexican criminal groups. "Dominican and African American
criminal groups are the dominant wholesale and mid-level distributors of South
American heroin in Virginia." The average cop on the beat in Virginia
almost certainly is aware of these patterns, but an officer who targets the
likely suspects risks being excoriated for "profiling." Is it any
wonder cops turn to menial matters when they are criticized for intelligent
policing? Citizens also bear the blame for tolerating tactics that use law
enforcement to produce revenue. For example, sobriety checkpoints not only
yield negligible results, they may even be counterproductive. How many more
tragedies could be prevented by patrolling for impaired drivers? Nonetheless,
Virginia police set up roadblocks weekly because that allows them to collect
millions of dollars in grant money from the federal government -- and profits
from a windfall of tickets. Consider that Fairfax's 316 checkpoints last year
yielded only 770 arrests for DUI, but 7,209 citations for other infractions --
e.g., incorrectly installed child seats, expired property stickers, non-use of
safety belts, etc. Corralling citizens to sift for a few miscreants is
precisely what the Fourth Amendment prohibits, but officials promote it and
citizens acquiesce because dragnets are so lucrative. Most police officers are
courageous people whose talents are wasted in setting trivial traps. And,
surely, most Virginians would prefer being protected to being harassed. But
effective law enforcement needs a political climate in which facts can prevail
over political correctness -- and where local officials are willing to eschew
the revenue produced by predatory policing. Criminals in Northern Virginia,
sleep soundly.
