Pubdate: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Copyright: 2009 The Commercial Appeal Contact: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95 Author: Otis L. Sanford Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/undercover+operations OTIS L. SANFORD: COPS POSING AS KIDS JUST DOES NOT SEEM RIGHT OK, I get it. This is about creating a safe school environment and protecting students from the scourge of drug dependency. It's about zero tolerance, or something close to it, for peddling even small quantities of drugs on or near a school campus. It's about keeping kids from making a stupid mistake that they will regret, and perhaps pay for, the rest of their lives. And it's about closing a door that could lead to more serious, even violent criminal activity down the road. I get all of that, and more. So why do I feel a slight twinge of uneasiness about what went down last week at Millington Central High School? A fresh-faced Millington police officer posed as a high school student for four months. The "student" attended classes, took exams, did homework, tolerated cafeteria food -- and allegedly bought drugs from other students. The undercover sting ended Tuesday with the arrest of 13 students on charges of selling marijuana, Ecstasy and prescription drugs. The charges also included peddling fake drugs as if they were the real thing. That's 13 students nabbed after a four-month sting at a school where 1,500 students attend. Millington Police Chief Rick Jewell, who is leaving office next month, set up the undercover operation with permission from Shelby County Schools Supt. Bobby Webb. Millington Central's principal and assistant principal were the only ones at the school in on the ruse. It was the second major undercover drug sting at the Millington school in less than three years. In April 2006, police arrested 26 students and former students after they sold drugs to undercover officers. Those cops, however, did not pose as students. In fact, Jewell said, the latest sting is likely the first time in Shelby County that a cop has posed as a student to nab suspected high school drug pushers. But the tactic has been used effectively around the country for years. Police in Los Angeles did it for 30 years before disbanding the program in 2004 amid heavy criticism after an examination showed kids in special education were being targeted. In suburban Seattle last year, two undercover detectives, ages 29 and 33, passed themselves off as students and bought a variety of illegal drugs. The sting resulted in 12 arrests. A 22-year-old cop fresh out of the police training academy posed as a skateboarding, baggy jeans-wearing teenager in a Redmond, Wash., high school in 2003, and arrested five students for selling drugs. And in suburban Boston, an attractive young officer enrolled in high school in 2006, and for three months told fellow students she needed drugs to deal with the pain caused by the death of her mother and an absentee father. Nine gullible male students, who sold her marijuana and Ecstasy, were later arrested, according to The Boston Globe. In each of these undercover operations, police officials said, they were responding to citizen complaints about rampant drug problems in the schools. And court challenges to these type of sting operations are rarely, if ever, successful. Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons said Jewell, a former narcotics officer, notified him beforehand of the Millington school sting. "I thought it was appropriate," Gibbons said, noting that schools are designated as drug-free zones. But E. Winslow "Buddy" Chapman, executive director of Crimestoppers of Memphis and Shelby County, was less enthusiastic. While not criticizing the Millington sting, Chapman believes the practice is not a long-term answer to fighting criminal behavior at school. "You can put undercover officers in schools until you're blue in the face, but only the students really know what's going on." Better answers, he insists, are found in programs such as Trust Pays, the Crimestoppers initiative that offers cash rewards to students who anonymously report criminal activity to school officials. Still, as long as they are legal and as long as school leaders and most parents are willing to accept them, these kinds of undercover stings will likely continue. I just can't help but believe there must be better ways to fight drug peddling at schools than to dupe teenagers, some of whom foolishly commit illegal acts just to fit in and be accepted. But believe me, I get it. The deterrent effect, the whole bit. I just don't necessarily like it. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin