Arrest Disparity and Oregon's No Longer Drug Free Zones

Racially biased enforcement of drug free enhancement penalty zones gained media attention in Oregon and no longer are on the books. On October, 2 2007 the Oregonian ("Police try to solve arrests disparity") reported that, 'A vexing mystery faces Portland police: Why did they ban African Americans from the city's defunct drug-free zones more often than whites or Latinos? More than two-thirds -- 68.2 percent -- of the African Americans arrested got exclusion notices. That compares with 53.5 percent of the non-Latino whites arrested and 46.4 percent of Latinos arrested."

The Oregonian reported "The drug-free zones, which faded into oblivion Sunday, lost key political support last week when a report showed that police did not equally issue exclusion notices, which bar people arrested or cited on drug accusations from returning to the zones where the alleged crimes happened. Mayor Tom Potter commissioned the report by consultant John Campbell. Potter said the difference in arrests could share roots with 'racial profiling,' the concept that police stop and question minorities more often than they do whites."

The report also noted "The mayor has started a committee to study whether Portland has a racial profiling problem, how bad it is and how to address it.Defense lawyer Chris O'Connor, who fought the drug-free law for years, said he doubts the system intended to discriminate against African Americans. But it did so, and he urged the racial profiling committee to look at why. He also said the next step should be to study whether African Americans are targeted unfairly for drug arrests: More than half the people arrested in the zones were African Americans, who make up about 8 percent of the Portland population."