Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Byrne task forces account for huge portion of drug arrests in other states

By Gritsforbreakfast

In Oregon, I was astonished to read, 85% of drug arrests are made by regional narcotics task forces funded by the federal Byrne grant program, an overwhelming proportion. That statistic came out in the debate over the Bush Administration's proposal to slash the fund by 2/3.But guess what? The sky didn't fall when Texas closed its task forces, which spent most of their time running undercover stings in the same minority neighborhoods over and over scrounging for low-level users. If the budget cuts hold, I predict other states will discover, as we did, that Byrne task forces weren't making them all that much safer.

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).