Williams told The Common Denominator during an interview on April 9 that while his administration readily talks solutions, quashing the drug problem that has burdened many mayors before him remains a hotly pursued, if elusive, goal.

"Clearly, drugs have an impact," Williams said.

But there the consensus ends.

"The majority of homicides are not drug related," Williams asserted. "I meet with the chief regularly right here at this table, and he’s told me that the predominant cause of the homicides in the District’s not necessarily drugs."

Police and residents have for years been confronting crime -- including homicide -- that Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey has said is driven largely by the presence of illegal drugs. Last year, for example, Ramsey linked a 12 percent spike in the homicide rate to a jump in PCP use.

And with the current homicide rate up 24 percent from this time last year, law enforcement authorities and residents agree the drug problem has been as bad or worse since Ramsey began his tenure, making many uncertain who should be held responsible for the unyielding trend and what the next move should be in halting it.

"There’s no accountability," said Regina James, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5B chairman and a concerned community activist. "Our mayor told us everyone would have to be accountable. Hold him accountable."

Williams said he meets with the U.S attorney once a month to discuss civilly prosecuting owners of "nuisance properties," where illegal drug sales, use and manufacturing are known to take place.

Preventative drug treatment also is crucial, Williams said, underscoring the importance of working with the Addiction Prevention Recovery Administration (APRA), which focuses on treating D.C. residents who have alcohol, tobacco and other addictions.

MPD officials stressed that law enforcement agencies need to work together in dampening the severity of the drug problem and share the responsibility when they fail to do so. This, they said, encompasses accountability in each of the local and federal law enforcement agencies -- including the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Customs.

"Everybody’s accountable," said Sgt. John. J. Brennan of MPD’s Major Narcotics Branch. "We should take some [responsibility], the court system should take some, we should all stand up and say, ‘Hey, something’s wrong here. Maybe we’re all not doing our jobs.’"

Residents and officials emphasized that, in addition to broad accountability, more police officers should be patrolling problematic neighborhoods and agreed that officers on the street now are overworked and should be paid more.

Martha Kinter Pappano, a Ward 5 resident and former advisory neighborhood commissioner, said her neighborhood "is ripe for some serious problems" and lacks sufficient police presence.

"I don’t believe we have enough police presence," Pappano said. "We’re being spread too thin."

Pappano, a retired MPD officer, said she believes the patrol shortage stems from poor police administration, including Ramey’s command and others "way up high."

"I firmly believe that the officers are overworked," she said. "They’re very underpaid."

But Williams dismissed this.

"I believe we ought to be paying our police among the best in the country," Williams said. "And I think -- last time I checked -- I thought we were doing that."

According to information on official Web sites, Fairfax County pays new officers slightly more than MPD -- which now pays new officers $37,756 a year -- while Montgomery and Prince George’s counties offer slightly less. Nationally, Los Angeles and Boston pay their new officers more than MPD, while Chicago, New York, Houston and Miami pay less.

Williams didn’t say whether he believes MPD officers are overworked, but he did acknowledge that more funding should be afforded police in the fiscal 2004 budget, which he said would amount to increased police presence.

MPD officials said that with more officers they could make a greater dent in the drug problem.

"I think we could use some help," said Capt. William Manning of the Third Police District. "And I think a lot of officers would like to make more money."

But Manning said MPD is not unique in that it could benefit from more resources and compensation.

"I think if we had more people, we could concentrate on more specific problems," he said.

Sixth Police District Commander Willie Dandridge agrees that MPD is not unique in this regard.

"Officers always feel as though they’re overworked and underpaid," Dandridge said.

While he said he sees no correlation between lack of police manpower and increased drug-related crime, Dandridge said he "would gladly accept more officers."

This want of increased police presence has been evidenced in part by the existence of "orange hat patrols," groups of unarmed civilians who, with the blessings of police, patrol their neighborhoods and report potential criminal activity.

"I think it’s just -- every little bit helps," Manning said of the citizen patrols. "They’re extra eyes and ears."

Manning said he condones the patrols especially because the residents taking part often know more about their own neighborhoods than the officers patrolling them.

"I think it’s an excellent program," Dandridge said. "That’s the type of involvement we need out here."

The commander said he admires residents’ stoic efforts to defend their neighborhoods, adding that they send the right message to drug dealers.

"They’re saying, ‘We don’t want you,’" Dandridge said. "You cannot be held hostage within your community. I wish every community had one, to be honest with you."

Though police say the citizen patrols are safe because there’s usually no contact between residents and potential criminals, Williams said people should remember the patrols could be risky. But he could not be wholeheartedly against the idea.

"Well, when I lived in New Haven [Conn.] I was on the Board of Aldermen, and in my neighborhood that I represented ... we threw water balloons at prostitutes," he said.

Law enforcement officials, meanwhile, suggested more should be done to ensure the prosecution of drug offenders they apprehend. They complain that the same people are being arrested and prematurely released from custody, only to return to the neighborhoods in which they were initially caught.

"For some reason, maybe a drug dealer’s case doesn’t even make it to trial," said Mark C. Stone, a drug expert with MPD.

Seventh Police District Commander Winston Robinson agreed, attributing the unrelenting presence of drug-related crime to a flawed prosecution system that too easily allows established drug offenders to return to the street unprepared for employment.

"My gut feeling would be that it has a great deal to do with [drug offenders being prematurely released]," Robinson said. "So they have to return to the corner."

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Channing Phillips said he does not "necessarily disagree" with these critics’ sentiments, but added that the untimely release of prisoners before they are ready to work is not a prosecution issue.

While allowing that there is a "revolving door syndrome," in which criminals are incarcerated and rapidly released only to be arrested again a short time later, Phillips said there is no simple solution.

"Every case is evaluated on its own merits," Phillips said. "There’s a presumption of innocence" and only a limited number of people can be held in custody pending trial. These people have most likely committed a violent crime -- such as murder or rape, Phillips said.

"Oftentimes, the court is not going to detain a defendant," he said.

Phillips said defendants often are not prosecuted due to a lack of "sufficiency of evidence." But he said the U.S. Attorney’s Office does make an effort to keep drug dealers out of neighborhoods by striking a balance between incarceration and total freedom.

"What we continue to do is ask the court for a stay-away order," he said.

A stay-away order bars an offender from coming within five blocks of where they were arrested, Phillips said. If the order -- which remains in effect as long as does the charge -- is violated, the defendant is charged with contempt of court in addition to the initial violation and may or may not be incarcerated.

"With respect to certain individuals, it’s a problem," he said. "Unfortunately, it’s an age-old problem."

Brennan, who supports using the stay-away orders, dismissed suggestions that prosecution is the only area in need of overhaul, preferring to more broadly critique the legal system.

The real problem, Brennan said, "is the fact that we don’t report enough drug offenses." There are "100 open-air drug markets under the drug czar’s nose," he said, referring to John P. Walters, director of the National Drug Control Policy.

"We could blame the court system, but that’s a copout," he said. "It’s more than the court system, it’s everything."

One way to save money and space in prison, Mayor Williams suggested, could be reconsidering the narcotics laws that define drug violations and lead to arrests in the first place.

"Personally, I think we should rethink our drug laws," Williams said. "I think we spend billions of dollars to arrest people and throw them in prison and all they do is become better, bigger prisoners for messing around with marijuana."

Williams said he wasn’t minimizing the effects of marijuana or calling into question its legality, "but I think at this point, expending what we’ve expended with the cost of lives and everything else, it’s worthy of some review," he said.

Williams affirmed his confidence in Ramsey despite criticism from residents and some law enforcement authorities, suggesting it would be next to impossible to replace him. The chief -- who was hired under the now defunct control board and today works under the mayor’s supervision -- has established good relations with the community and changed "a very, very troubled department," Williams said.

"I think when you look at the chief’s overall record, I do believe that he’s doing a good job," Williams said. "I think it would be very, very difficult -- if possible -- to replace the chief."

In the meantime, Robinson competed with ringing phones and radio chatter as he explained that the number of arrests in the Seventh Police District so far this year is comparable to that of this time the year before.

"Looks like it’ll be a pretty busy year," Robinson said.

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator