Fri
Jan 27 2012
07:33 am
Knox County's curiously low rate of narcotics arrests and prosecutions
By: R. Neal

In her ongoing effort to understand the breakdown of the Knox Co. justice system and advocate for reforms, Katie Allison Granju has some startling new information uncovered by Rich Hailey.

Here’s the takeaway: this analysis makes it very, very clear that for some reason, KCSO is simply not identifying, investigating or arresting the drug dealers operating in and passing through Knox County, Tennessee. That conclusion remains constant no matter how many ways you slice or look at this data.

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kag's picture

Randy - Thank you so much for

Submitted by kag on Fri, 2012/01/27 - 8:35am.

Randy - Thank you so much for helping to shine a bright light on what this measurable data reveals about KCSO. I am really hoping that all KnoxViews readers will take a close look at this data. A I said in the blog post to which you linked, I believe this research by Rich represents the most important original reporting in some time on the still-unfolding narcotics scandal within our county's criminal justice system.

I look forward to hearing comments from others after they look at these numbers, an hearing what kinds of questions this information raises for them.

-katie

kag's picture

I really, really, REALLY hope

Submitted by kag on Fri, 2012/01/27 - 9:56am.

I really, really, REALLY hope that some local reporter *will* take Rich's research and use it as basis to investigate further. When the only category of crime where KCSO is underperforming is narcotics, and when they are underperforming to such a statistically notable degree - even as everyone agrees that drug crime is the biggest problem we have -there are some hard questions that somebody in the "real" media needs to be asking.

Average Guy's picture

It appears any help or

Submitted by Average Guy on Fri, 2012/01/27 - 11:41am.

It appears any help or exposure will have to come from outside the area, if not the State. 

Anybody reading the work Ms. Granju has to come away with at least a raised eyebrow, if not many, many questions.

Questions it appears the press is not curious about (or won't ask because of who raised them) and questions those in the ever shrinking circle of the core of this aren't about answer voluntarily. 

Which leaves the question for citizens; to whom should citizens turn for answers? 

bizgrrl's picture

I'm not saying, I'm just

Submitted by bizgrrl on Fri, 2012/01/27 - 12:18pm.

I'm not saying, I'm just saying. Is it possible that more of the drug crime occurs in the City of Knoxville instead of Knox County as compared to the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County?

Drug/Narc Drug/Narcotic Population Per 1,000 Per 1,000
Violations Equip Viols DNV DNEV
Knox 2,477 1,717 432,226 5.73 3.97
Hamilton 2,148 893 336,463 6.38 2.65
Knoxville 2,131 1,373 178,874 11.91 7.68
Chattanooga 1,207 366 167,674 7.20 2.18

Similarly, the City of Alcoa has a lot more Drug/Narcotic arrests (329) than the City of Maryville (106) with 1/3 the population.

kag's picture

I'm sure that KCSO would like

Submitted by kag on Fri, 2012/01/27 - 7:49pm.

I'm sure that KCSO would like to make the case that the 250,000 people who live in their jurisdiction (plus the many others who pass thru every day due to our location the on I-75 corridor) have such a low rate of criminal narcotics activity that it translates into a low rate of KCSO drug busts....

No drug crimes = no need to arrest people very often for drug crimes, right?

Rich Hailey's picture

No Evidence to Support Decreased Drug Activity in Knox County

Submitted by Rich Hailey on Fri, 2012/01/27 - 9:32pm.

Bizgrrl, I'm glad you asked. Your question cuts to the heart of the KCSO position. They will claim that the low rate of violations is due to their successful enforcement efforts creating an actual low level of activity.

However, as I pointed out in the article, there's no other class of violation among those I looked at that show such a marked difference between Knox County and Hamilton County. Those other criminal acts provide a benchmark for the level of criminal activity in their respective counties. When all of those levels correspond fairly closely, and the only one that doesn't is drug/narcotics violations, the correct interpretation of the data is not to assume an unexplained decrease in activity in only one category, but a difference in the level of enforcement. That's why I included that data.

So, while it is theoretically possible, the data does not support it.

Also, I note that you include the numbers for possession of drug paraphernalia in your table. I omitted them because I'm only interested in busts involving actual possession, and even more, with intent for resale. The DNE violations are irrelevant to actual trafficking.

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