NEEDLE EXCHANGE WON'T BE TARGETED

Los Angeles Police Department officials took steps this week to ease
concerns that police had been trying to intimidate clients of a
needle exchange program in Hollywood.

"We recognize that we need to continue to evolve, and we're certainly
sensitive to this problem," Assistant Chief George Gascon told the
Police Commission on Tuesday. "It's a matter of us finding a way
trying to strike a balance between public health and reducing crime."

Needle exchange advocates at the Hollywood site recently complained
of several instances in which addicts felt intimidated by the
presence of police in the area.

Shoshanna Scholar, executive director of Clean Needles Now, said
police visited the site three times over a five-week period since
mid-September, resulting in six searches, an arrest for a parole
violation and the confiscation of one man's needles. Some addicts
said they now avoid the site, which is operated twice a week out of a
parked SUV near Sycamore Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

In a memo the Police Commission accepted Tuesday, Police Chief
William J. Bratton wrote that the department would remind officers of
its policy on needle exchanges. The policy says police are not to
target or observe needle exchange sites for the sole purpose of
identifying and arresting people for drug-related crimes.

The city of Los Angeles has permitted and funded the exchange of used
hypodermic syringes for clean replacements since 1994. Studies have
shown that needle exchange programs reduce HIV infection rates
because they reduce drug addicts' reliance on shared or reused needles.

Gascon said that in one case, police recruits were unaware the needle
exchange existed when 14 of them walked through or near the exchange
location on Oct. 20.

In his memo, Bratton wrote that police would continue to work in and
around needle exchange sites. But he added that the department would
ensure that in the future, it would notify officers about the
specific location of needle exchange sites and remind them of the
department's policy.

In addition, Bratton wrote that watch commanders would be given
additional training emphasizing the department's support of needle
exchanges and "ensuring the procedures and guidelines are not violated."

Scholar said she was pleased.

"All in all, I felt like we were listened to, and there was a lot of
progress," Scholar said. "Ideally, if everybody sticks to protocol
that was laid out by Chief Bratton, then I think we're OK."