On April 28, the Senate passed a bill that would eliminate the state’s few remaining “rogue” drug task force operations and would provide for a portion of funds seized by DTFs to be set aside to fund drug treatment programs. Although some consider all multijurisdictional drug task forces rogue operations, SB 1125, by Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, concerns itself only with those DTFs that have so far refused to have their operations overseen by the Department of Public Safety. In the wake of the Tulia drug-task-force debacle, Gov. Rick Perry tapped DPS to act as the state’s DTF watchdog. Submitting to state oversight is optional, but failure to do so results in an inability to receive state-administered federal Byrne Grant funding, the DTFs’ main outside cash cow.
Of course, cutting off access to federal grants isn’t necessarily a deathblow to task force operations, since many of the DTFs keep their operations in the black with county funds or with profits from seized property and cash, which prompted a handful of DTFs to remain free from state oversight. SB 1125 would put an end to that, which hasn’t made everyone happy – least of all the South Texas Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force, whose leader, Cmdr. Jamie R. Garza, last month told reporters that the bill was filed in retaliation for an October traffic stop of the senator by one of his task force officers. Hinojosa “was trying to say that we are a bunch of rogues, that we don’t report to anybody, and my answer to that is ‘Hell, no,'” Garza told the McAllen Monitor.
Hinojosa was heading south on US Hwy. 281 on Oct. 7, when he was pulled over by a cop who said that Hinojosa’s tinted windows were too dark, and that he thought Hinojosa “swerved toward the shoulder when he waved to the officer,” Garza told The Monitor. Reportedly, Hinojosa got a warning for the windows and for an expired insurance card. But according to Garza that was enough to prompt Hinojosa to attack his task force – conveniently, Garza’s view of the situation overlooks the fact that Hinojosa has long been a foe of unregulated task force activities.
In other Texas drug-related news, San Antonio Democratic Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon‘s bid to bring enhanced drug-free zones to Bexar Co. has made it out of committee and onto the House floor. As originally filed, HB 65 would allow San Antonio’s city council to designate one or more geographic areas within the city as a DFZ and would allow the city to banish an individual from that area based on an arrest or conviction for a drug-related crime. Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, offered a revision in committee, making the DFZ measure a “pilot program” (set to expire in 2015) and shifting the power to create a geographic DFZ over to the county’s district court judges, who may designate a DFZ in order to “abate a public nuisance” – presumably an attempt to shut down crack and/or meth lab houses. Unfortunately, the revision still allows judges to ban from the designated DFZ any individual even arrested on drug charges. Violation of expulsion terms would result in either civil or criminal penalties – including the possibility of up to a year in county jail.
Although DFZs are commonly used to enhance criminal sentences for drug defendants caught in certain places – like near schools or police stations – free-floating DFZs of the sort proposed by McClendon and Menendez are nearly unprecedented. Portland, Ore., is the only city that authorizes floating geographical DFZs, and last month, a Portland public defender challenged the constitutionality of the law in court, claiming the DFZs violate due process rights by excluding people from the zone based only on arrest, and that they violate equal protection law by disproportionately impacting minorities. According to the city’s public defender, 60% of the 800 people cited for entering the DFZ while banished were black, reported Willamette Week. On April 22, Circuit Judge Michael Marcus tossed the equal protection claim, but cautioned the city on their use of the DFZ ordinance, which he said had been used to rid areas of the city not only of drug dealers but also of homeless, poor, and mentally ill individuals, reported The Oregonian.
This article appears in May 6 • 2005.