Drug Market Intervention

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

In order to combat drug use, the Montgomery County, MD Department of Police initiated the Drug Market Initiative (DMI) for a selected community which has a long history of being an open air drug market and a community of violence. The initiative began in March 2011 with the collaborative effort of the police department, the States’ Attorney’s Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Up County Governmental Services Center. The Drug Market Initiative is a strategic and focused intervention intended to shut down or eliminate open air drug markets and thereby reduce crime and violence in a targeted neighborhood. The DMI concentrated on classifying the serious offenders and the non-serious offenders as A list and B list candidates, respectively. The serious offenders have been charged accordingly with criminal violations and the non-serious candidates (B list) were offered alternatives for an intervention. The program began with an eight-month long narcotics investigation utilizing undercover techniques. This resulted in nine arrests and eight individuals were offered the intervention in December 2011. This has resulted in established community partnerships and the elimination of an open air drug market and a reduction in calls for police service.