RACE AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF DRUG DELIVERY LAWS IN ...

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Table 16. Statistical Significance of the Difference between the Racial/Ethnic Composition of Observed Drug Deliverers and Drug Delivery Arrestees Observed Deliverers (A) Delivery Arrestees (B) Downtown Difference (B-A) Z Score Black 33.3% 85.3% +52% 9.9* White 49.5% 9.3% -40.2% -8.3* Capitol Hill Black 9.1% 27.2% 18.1% 1.4 White 83.6% 72.7% -10.9% -1 Downtown and Capitol Hill combined Black 28.2% 77.9% 49.7% 9.6* White 57.1% 17.4% -40% -8* Sources: Nyrop, Demographic Comparisons of Two Public Venue Drug Markets in Seattle; Seattle Police Department incident reports. Note: *Indicates a statistically significant disparity (Z>2). In sum, comparisons of the black share of those observed delivering drugs downtown and in Capitol Hill indicates that blacks are over-represented among drug delivery arrestees relative to those who are actually (and visibly) engaging in drug delivery. Downtown, blacks are more than 13 times more likely to be arrested than whites engaging in the same behavior; in Capitol Hill, blacks are nearly four times more likely than whites engaging in the same behavior to be arrested. The disparity found downtown and in downtown/Capitol Hill (combined) is highly statistically significant—that is, extremely unlikely to be the result of chance. Although the observational study was conducted only downtown and in Capitol Hill, the second wave of the needle exchange survey also provides information about drug transactions that occurred in the University District. In the second wave of the needle exchange survey, needle exchange clients described 70 drug transactions that took place in the University District. Of these transactions, 22.9 percent involved a black drug deliverer, 65.7 percent involved a white drug deliverer and 7.1 percent a Latino drug deliverer. By contrast, 71.4 percent of those purposefully arrested for delivery of a serious drug in the University 71
District were black; only 19 percent were white. This pattern remains consistent even if we limit our attention to outdoor drug transactions (see Table 17). Table 17. The Racial/Ethnic Composition of Drug Deliverers and Drug Delivery Arrestees, University District Indoor Deliveries (n=17) Vehicle Deliveries (n=31) Outdoor Deliveries (n=21) All Deliveries (n=70) Delivery Arrestees (n=20) Black 11.8% 19.1% 38.1% 22.9% 70% White 76.5% 71% 47.6% 65.7% 20% Latino 6.5% 9.7% 4.8% 7.1% 0 Source: 2007–2008 Seattle-King County Needle Exchange Survey, Second Wave; Seattle Police Department incident reports. Note: Location type was unidentified in one case. Z scores measuring the difference between involvement in drug delivery in the University District and University District delivery arrestees also indicate that the over-representation of blacks, and under-representation of whites, is highly statistically significant. Specifically, the Z score that measures black overrepresentation is 4.1; for white under-representation, it is -4.3. 113 Although it is possible that the omission of crack cocaine users who do not also inject drugs from the needle exchange survey results is leading to an underestimate of black involvement in drug delivery in the University District, needle exchangers who last obtained a drug in the University District were more likely than those who last obtained a drug either downtown or in Capitol Hill to report that their last drug acquisition involved crack cocaine. Specifically, 3.7 percent of those who last obtained a drug in Capitol Hill, 10.7 percent of those who last obtained a drug downtown, and 17.1 percent of those who last obtained a drug in the University District last acquired crack cocaine. Thus, there appears to be less differentiation between needle exchangers and crack cocaine users among those obtaining drugs in the University District than is the case in either Capitol Hill or downtown. 113 There were an additional four purposeful marijuana delivery arrests in census tract 53 during the four month sampling period. Because arrests are compared with needle exchange survey information for the University District, and marijuana transactions were omitted from the analysis of the survey results, it is not necessary to combine marijuana delivery arrests with delivery arrests involving serious drugs for the University District. 72
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RACE AND DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT IN SE
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This report was commissioned as par
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES PAGE TAB
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Figure 9. Purposeful Seattle Drug D
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SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS FINDING 1 T
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FINDING 4 The focus on crack cocain
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INTRODUCTION Less than 5 percent of
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RACIAL DISPARITIES IN SEATTLE DRUG
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Table 1. Black and White Drug Arres
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esearchers found that rates of drug
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RESEARCH DESIGN AND ORGANIZATION OF
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serious drugs in Seattle are white.
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users: “Persons at almost all lev
Page 29 and 30: as the goal is to provide samples o
Page 31 and 32: percent of white Seattle residents,
Page 33 and 34: acial/ethnic groups. These data ind
Page 35 and 36: When approaching clients, surveyors
Page 37 and 38: youth. However, these surveys likel
Page 39 and 40: 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Page 41 and 42: or partially publicly-funded treatm
Page 43 and 44: Primary Drug of Abuse Cocaine (all
Page 45 and 46: system at the time of their death w
Page 47 and 48: did not transfer drugs to the buyer
Page 49 and 50: Insofar as many drug users knowingl
Page 51 and 52: the person who provided these subst
Page 53 and 54: Table 7. Racial and Ethnic Composit
Page 55 and 56: Table 8. Summary of Data Pertaining
Page 57 and 58: ut only 89 for methamphetamine, ecs
Page 59 and 60: time. 87 As noted previously, this
Page 61 and 62: Drug delivery arrests continue to b
Page 63 and 64: In sum, many of the arrest patterns
Page 65 and 66: Table 10. Racial Disparity in Drug
Page 68 and 69: PART III: EXPLAINING RACIAL DISPARI
Page 70 and 71: that a higher percentage of whites
Page 72 and 73: After clients had completed their s
Page 74 and 75: Table 13. Racial and Ethnic Composi
Page 76 and 77: whites engaging in the same behavio
Page 78 and 79: Analysis of the patterns found in t
Page 82 and 83: In sum, the evidence shows that rac
Page 84 and 85: those delivering drugs downtown wer
Page 86 and 87: for delivering a serious drug in Se
Page 88 and 89: to danger, instantaneous addiction
Page 90 and 91: 9.6 percent primarily abused other
Page 92 and 93: percent of those delivering drugs d
Page 94 and 95: officers made a drug arrest, issued
Page 96 and 97: Figure 18. Geographic Distribution
Page 98 and 99: Figure 20. Geographic Distribution
Page 100 and 101: As these maps illustrate, civilian
Page 102 and 103: and infant health by crack cocaine
Page 104 and 105: Although the crack trade has been a
Page 106: Weapons were more likely to be seiz
Page 109 and 110: supports an alternative explanation
Page 111 and 112: Buckman, Charles, and John Lamberth
Page 113 and 114: Hagedorn, John M. 1994. “Homeboys
Page 115 and 116: Murphy, Sheigla and Dan Waldorf. 19
Page 117 and 118: Ritter, Alison. 2005. A Review of A
Page 119 and 120: United Nations International Drug C
Page 121 and 122: APPENDIX B: UNRELIABLE 9-1-1 CALL E
Page 123 and 124: Complaint: Arrival: Officer Update:
Page 126: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Katherine Beckett
Page 130:
THE DEFENDER ASSOCIATION
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