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Report Finds Huge Racial Disparity In Drug Arrests

Posted: 4:43 pm PST November 24, 2003Updated: 4:46 pm PST November 24, 2003

It's the study police didn't want you to see. But KIRO 7 Eyewitness News has new information on the huge racial disparity in drug arrests in Seattle.

Drug Report

Newly-released under a court order, Seattle Police records show that 62 percent of the people they arrested for serious drug charges were black and 19 percent are were white.

That's even though critics say studies repeatedly show that whites deliver most of the serious drugs in Seattle.

The study was done on behalf of defendants like Curtis Richard, who faced 10 years in prison because of multiple convictions for dealing small amounts of drugs.

Curtis Richard says he was walking near 5th and Jackson when he believes he was targeted because he is black.

"To me, they just focus on just the blacks and Latinos right here in this here area," Richard said.

The study found that the big majority of drug offenders in the city, like offenders who attend rave parties, are white.

But that police concentrate their resources in neighborhoods where the drug offenders are likely to be people of color.

For example, at Second and Pike, where drug dealers are more likely to be black or Latino, researchers found more than 400 drug arrests in during the study period. But on Capitol Hill, where drug dealers are more likely to be white, there were just 25 arrests.

Researchers saw fewer drug deals along Broadway but say the difference isn't enough to account for the huge disparity in arrests.

University of Washington professor Katherine Beckett led the investigation.

"Black deliverers of methamphetamines are 32 times as likely as likely to be arrested for that crime than a white person who commits that crime," Beckett said.

Defendants like Curtis Richard hope the study will help.

"I'm hoping that someday that we'll have a fair chance just like the white Americans here in Seattle that can walk on and be about our business as they do without being charged or targeted for anything," he said.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has been briefed on the study results, but we were unable to reach him for comment Monday.

Police, however, have adopted a policy banning any racial profiling.

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