People disadvantaged in this case
Street-level drug dealing is toxic to a neighborhood because of the direct nexus between drug dealing and violence. A prime example of this was a home invasion robbery homicide committed by three young street drug dealers in the West End community of High Point in October 2003.  Like many other agencies, our response to drug-infested areas has been to conduct crackdowns and drug sweeps, making multiple arrests. Police has arrests as one of its few tools to fight crime, a tool that proves ineffective as courts and prisons are overburdened. In spite of this, targeted neighborhoods have had consistently high rates of drug trafficking, leaving residents without access to basic law and order within their own neighborhoods. As a result of these problems the community, which is mainly Afro-American, felt that they were excluded from the protection they deserve. They felt disappointed in the police and lacked trust. There had been historically tense relations between the African American community and police. They felt they opted out of justice, so the police had to come up with a way to opt them back in.
Determined to make a difference, the executive staff of the High Point Police Department met with Professor David Kennedy, then of Harvard University, to discuss alternative drug traffic control strategies. David Kennedy of Harvard suggested  a nontraditional deterrent. He proposed the concept of a law enforcement and community partnership, which would comprehensively dissuade street level drug dealers from dealing in open-air markets.  The strategy acts on multiple levels as a deterrent for those impacting the community, leaving offenders with little choice but to modify their behavior. The end result is a dramatic reduction in drug-related and violent crime and a safer community. On top of that, a lot of unintended consequences that usually accompany such measures were now absent.

How the innovation improved access
The Overt Drug Market Strategy has eleven key elements: 1) mapping, to determine where the most serious offenses are concentrated; 2) mobilizing commitment of community through public meetings to identify and inform community stakeholders; 3) surveying by police and probation officers to identify those involved in street drug dealing; 4) formal identification of offenders and their areas of activity; 5) incident review; 6) undercover investigation of each location and offender; 7) contact with the offender’s family to invite them to join law enforcement in asking offenders to quit; 8) the call-in, involving a face-to-face call between offenders, law and enforcement, and the community (to overcome anonymity); 9) a deadline is issued for three days after the call in for offenders to quit dealing; 10) enforcement; and 11) follow-up visits about a month after the call-in to ensure that former offenders are being given the help they need to resist returning to drug dealing.
The strategy identifies or selects neighborhoods for implementation based on intense analysis of crime data, followed by interviewing/surveying patrol officers, probation officers, street narcotics officer and community members for their list of “persons of interest.” This careful preparation takes a minimum of three months: building cases, identifying key players, determining which offenders need to be arrested or removed immediately and which ones to invite to the notification session. To date, 40 offenders have been called-in or notified for the Overt Drug Market Strategy in 3 neighborhoods.
By identifying known drug dealers and encouraging them to give up dealing, the High Point police department is improving access to justice on two fronts. Offenders can now access public programs and resources to assist them to find livelihoods without breaking the law, while community members have access to safer streets and a more responsive criminal justice system.

Obstacles encountered
The most significant obstacle to High Point’s Overt Drug Market Strategy is the lack of employment opportunities for notified offenders. Jobs are scarce across the board, and most street level drug offenders have minimal qualifications. These social issues are not going to be solved quickly; however, working in collaboration with area service providers, we approach each offender’s situation by offering support for whatever is requested, including mentoring, partially funded apprenticeship programs, training, or treatment needs.
While employment heads the list of needs, smaller issues come into play as well — problems such as transportation and education. For example, a notified offender might need a GED to be considered for employment but have no means to get to class unless the Resource Coordinator provides a bus pass. A local African American congregation has partnered with us, providing mentors willing to walk with offenders for as long as necessary, providing help in any way possible.

The results of the innovation
The single most important achievement of High Point’s Street Drug Strategy has been the collapse of drug markets in the targeted neighborhoods.  This is not to say drugs are not still being sold — police cannot control consumption — but the associated violence and visible danger to residents on sidewalks and street corners has vanished. Children can safely play outside; folks can walk to neighborhood stores or sit on their front porches without fear of violence or having to witness criminal activity. Rush hour traffic jams caused by people buying drugs on their way home have disappeared. This was accomplished with very few arrests.  In fact arrests in West End declined 12%.
The 1998 institution of the violent offender notification process, on which the Overt Drug Market Strategy is based, resulted in consistent reductions in High Point’s violent crime rate as it decreased 47% from 1302.5 in 1997 to 681.5 in 2005. In the two years following the Drug Market call-in in the West End neighborhood, site of the first Overt Drug Market Strategy implementation, crime of all kinds remained more than 25% lower than before strategy implementation. Citywide, violent crime decreased 20% in that same 2 years. The long term effect is that the community has qualitatively improved. There is less crime, less violence and the neighborhoods looks better. Police had to admit that it employed wrong tactics in the past, but does much better now. The relationship with the Afro-American community has significantly improved. The leading thought was that if we are not successful as a police to Afro-American, then we are not successful at all.