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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
As the Portland City Council performed a three-year review of its drug- and prostitution-free zones, Parkrose residents asked for the zone’s boundaries to be extended to cover more of their neighborhood.
Instead, at Portland Mayor Tom Potter’s behest, City Council voted to keep the existing system in place until Feb. 2, and in the meantime give the system a critical examination.
When someone is arrested for a drug- or prostitution-related offense, as a condition of release from jail, that person can be excluded from designated areas. If the people excluded are then found in these zones, they can be cited for trespassing. The exclusions can last for up to 90 days following an arrest, up to a year following a conviction.
The zones are placed in areas that have a high incidence of drug- and prostitution-related arrests. Every three years they are adjusted based on current data. This year the Multnomah County district attorney’s office has proposed creating a new drug free zone along Northeast and Southeast 82nd avenues, and to expand an existing prostitution-free zone there for 500 feet to the east and west. Conversely, they recommend removing a longtime prostitution-free zone along Northeast Sandy Boulevard west of 82nd Avenue.
Several Parkrose residents called for the zone to be extended eastward along Sandy to at least 122nd Avenue. Brian and Mary Walker said that just beyond the current boundary at 112th, especially, there is a concentration of such activity. It is a problem for both adjacent businesses and residents, they said.
“I knew about the drugs and prostitution before I moved here,” Brian Walker said, “but I had no idea it was so bad. We have a choice of bailing out of the neighborhood, or staying and fighting.”
City Commissioner Dan Saltzman asked if crime data would support the Walkers’ request. Deputy District Attorney Jim Hayden said he wasn’t sure.
The matter became moot when Potter announced he wanted the program re-examined.
The program has been a source of debate since it was initiated in 1993. Police and public safety advocates say it is a valuable tool; they do not have to catch drug dealers or prostitutes in the act to remove them from the area they operate in. Critics say it is too easy for the police to use exclusions to pick on people who have yet to be convicted of a crime. In some cases, they charge, the system is used to carry out racial discrimination.
These arguments were repeated, with critics saying they were concerned about exclusions used against people who are never brought to trial, with no chance for due process.
Hayden said the courts have upheld the constitutionality of the laws. Potter replied, “There’s constitutionality, but there’s also good public policy. We need to see what’s the best policy for citizens subjected to these things, and also those cited.”
City Commissioners Randy Leonard and Erik Sten also expressed doubt about the current laws.
“This is a very hard issue for me,” Leonard said. “I’ve worked very hard to give the police the tools to do the job. I’m keenly focused on the argument that these tools are used without due process. We must protect individual rights. We can’t just have a system with no checks and balances. I have deep concerns about these policies.”
Sten, who voted against the zones when they were first proposed, said, “Repeat offenders are doing these things over and over again, and it’s not possible to keep them in jail - that’s the problem. The issue for me is, we can exclude people who have no record on their first offense. I will continue not to support this until that’s fixed. It’s not necessary.”
Commissioner Sam Adams, who had recently visited the Parkrose Neighborhood Association, seemed more sympathetic to the law.
“This is an issue I’m familiar with,” he said. “While looking at ethnicity, boundaries and fairness, I hope we don’t dull what has been a very useful tool. Some neighborhoods are overwhelmed by this kind of activity.”
Potter asked Hayden to supply statistics on the racial makeup of those arrested. This prompted Brian Walker to say, “Don’t just look at ethnicity. It’s a factor in many areas, and one of them is poverty. Prostitutes are not bad people; they’re poor people.”
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