University of Virginia Library

ACLU Panel Explores Conflicts
Between Law, Civil Liberties

By MARGARET ALFORD

Extensive heroin use in Charlottesville
places the city "near the top" in
Virginia in the percentage of its
population using drugs, according to the
city's Chief of Police.

Participating in an American Civil
Liberties Union panel discussion
Thursday night, Chief John DeK. Bowen
referred to a recent state-wide drug abuse
survey as evidence of "a problem many
people are unaware of."

Mr. Bowen felt that "hard-core law
enforcement is not the answer to the drug
problem although it plays a role."

"The situation is so bad that no one
hears of many cases because the addict is
too sick to go to jail. He has to be nol
prossed," Mr. Brown noted.

A panel consisting of Mr. Bowen,
Charles R. Haugh, Albemarle County
Commonwealth Attorney, and F. Guthrie
Gordon, ACLU cooperating attorney,
discussed "Law Enforcement and Civil
Liberties: Need They Conflict?", focusing
primarily on drug problems, police
procedures, and court efficiency in
processing cases.

On court efficiency, Mr. Gordon noted
that the courts "particularly the Supreme
Court, can't process all the cases coming
up. It's jamming up, and justice isn't
being meted out. It's ridiculous, because
serious crimes are just getting wrist
slaps."

Police procedures in arrests and
searches were also discussed. Mr. Bowen
said he saw "no pressing need for a
no-knock law or wiretapping in
Charlottesville at present", although Mr.
Gordon defended wiretapping as a tool
for law enforcement, saying "the right of
privacy doesn't exist anymore."

However, Mr. Gordon advocated a
mandatory penalty against a police
officer who made "dry runs, searching a
subject's premises without any plausible
reason or evidence for doing so.

Mr. Bowen and Mr. Haugh both felt
that police officers need to be educated
in understanding the use of search and
arrest warrants.