Policing Places with Drug Problems: the Multi-agency Response Team Approach

This study evaluates the impact of the Oakland (CA) Police Department's SMART (Specialized Multi-Agency Response Team) program on drug-related problems and living conditions in the targeted areas. Data were obtained from agency records on arrests, emergency calls and field contacts at SMART sites (N=321). Results indicate that SMART intervention increased the level of citizen reporting of drug problems and decreased the level of narcotics activity at the targeted sites. Street-level policing of drug problems typically includes a range of tactics that target individuals selling or buying drugs. Undercover operations (e.g., see Lyman, 1987; Manning, 1980), buy-busts (Uchida et al., 1992), stingand reverse-buys (e.g., see Dick. 1985; Dickson, 1988) and casual drive-by observations of hand-to-hand drug deals on the street form the basic repertoire of most street narcotic squads in the U.S. In some cities, however, police departments have implemented alternative drug control programs that focus on cleaning up the places where drugs are sold rather than directly targeting the people who use or sell drugs (e.g. see Ferguson and Fitzsimons, 1990; Hope, 1994; Kennedy, 1993; U.S. National Institute of Justice, 1992; Snyder, 1990; Ward, 1987; Weisburd and Green, 1995). These alternative drug control strategies differ from traditional drug control efforts in that the former extends the responsibility for crime control to third parties, such as landlords and business owners (see Buerger and Green, 1994), and uses the city's regulatory rules and civil law codes to control the activities at places with drug problems. In 1988, the Oakland Police Department in California began a drug control program that relies on police coordination of multi-agency task Address correspondence to: Lorraine Green, Division of Criminal Justice. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221.