New anti-drug program set up in U. area joins neighbors, DA

Christmas has come in October, according to West Philadelphia resident Herman Rice. Rice, the founder of a nationally-known anti-drug group, believes a new program created by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office will be a major weapon in the fight against drugs. The program, begun yesterday, was developed by the DA's office and community groups with the help of a $500,000 grant from the state. Eight prosecutors and four detectives, along with a complement of administrators, will be assigned to Philadelphia's 18th Police District -- the area which surrounds the University. Each prosecutor will be assigned to a neighborhood in West Philadelphia. The Intensive Narcotics Enforcement Program, called LINE, "will enable the District Attorney's office to vertically prosecute offenders," according to DA spokesperson William Delvol. An assistant district attorney will handle a case from the pre-trial hearings to the trial and hopefully to a conviction, Delvol said. "I think [the program] will affect the University tremendously," Delvol said last week. "You are a test case." LINE -- the first of its kind in the country -- was established in the 18th district because of the Mantua Against Drugs organization, which provides the district with a strong network of anti-drug community groups, he said. The diverse composition of the district, with its University students, its middle class neighborhoods and its slums, will provide a perfect test area for the program, according to Rice. "The neighbors are ecstatic," said Rice, who founded his anti-drug coalition in the 16th district. Rice said that although he wanted the 16th district to receive the grant money and the program, he campaigned for the program to be set up in the 18th district because "the 18th has everything. If it works there it can work everywhere." Bernie Kimmons, chief of staff for the Mantua Against Drugs program, said last night that the program is "a marriage between us and the DA's office." "It makes the community aware that the DAs care about the community," Kimmons said. "It creates a personal relationship between the district attorney and the community." In a very rough estimate, the new program could cut drug-related crime around campus by as much as 50 percent, Philadelphia Police Detective Lawrence Singer said. Although University Police do not make a significant number of drug arrests, the program will decrease the amount of overall crime around campus, according to Singer. "It's always more effective to have an assistant district attorney who is going to take a case from the preliminary hearings to the final trial," Singer said. "They get to know the case." Singer said the program won't affect University Police "in terms of the number of actual cases we initiate," but he is "hopeful that this will cut down on crime around campus." Eight prosecutors, who have been reassigned to the program, will work with individual neighborhoods in the 18th District -- the district bounded on the east by the Schuylkill River, on the west by 49th Street and stretching north to Market Street. Delvol said that a major advantage of the program is that it will help confiscate drug money, which will be recycled into the LINE program. "This program will take [drug offenders] out of government subsidized housing," Bertha Hines said last night. "It will keep these guys off the street." Hines, who is secretary of the University City Against Drugs organization, said neighbors she has talked with are optimistic about the future of the program. "Someone from the DA's office is going to talk to us this Wednesday," Hines said, adding that this program proves that fighting drugs "is not a joke anymore."

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