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Drugs and Crime Facts
   Drug law violations

Enforcement

Arrests and seizures

• Arrests
• Drug seizures

Arrests

Federal, State, and local agencies share responsibility for enforcing the Nation's drug laws, although most arrests are made by State and local authorities. In 2002 the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) estimated that there were 1,538,800 State and local arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States.

[D]

Click on the chart to view the data.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, annually.

According to the UCR, drug abuse violations are defined as State and/or local offenses relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs including opium or cocaine and their derivatives, marijuana, synthetic narcotics, and dangerous nonnarcotic drugs such as barbiturates.

More than four-fifths of drug law violation arrests are for possession.

[D]

Click on the chart to view the data.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, annually.

The number of arrests for drug abuse violations changed little from 2000 to 2002; arrests of adults increased slightly and arrests of juveniles decreased slightly. Juveniles are defined as persons under age 18. Adults are defined as persons age 18 or older. In 1987 drug arrests were 7.4% of the total of all arrests reported to the FBI; by 2002, drug arrests had risen to 11.0% of all arrests.

[D]

Click on the chart to view the data.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, annually.

In 2002, according to the UCR, law enforcement agencies nationwide made an estimated 13.7 million arrests for all criminal infractions except traffic violations. Among the specific categories, the highest arrest counts were --

• 1.5 million for drug abuse violations;
• approximately 1.5 million for driving under the influence;
• 1.3 million for simple assaults; and
• 1.2 million for larceny-thefts.

From 1987 to 1995 more drug arrests involved heroin or cocaine than other types of drugs. Since 1996 the number of arrests involving marijuana exceeded that for other types of drugs.

[D]

Click on the chart to view the data.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, annually.

The Northeastern region had a higher proportion of sale/manufacturing drug arrests than the other regions.

Drug seizures

Many Federal agencies are involved in the removal of illicit drugs from the market. The Federal-Wide Drug Seizure System (FDSS) contains information about drug seizures made within the jurisdiction of the United States by the FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs Service (USCS), and U.S. Border Patrol as well as maritime seizures made by the U.S. Coast Guard.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) --

• the Federal government seized 16,270 illegal drug laboratories between fiscal years 1975 and 2002
• in fiscal year 2002, of the 570 labs seized, 544 (95%) manufactured methamphetamines
• in 2002 the DEA program for eradicating domestic marijuana resulted in the destruction of 3.3 million plants in 33,329 plots, 8,247 arrests, 3,511 weapons seized, and assets seized valued at $28.3 million.
  
  Source: Data provided by U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration as reported in the BJS, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2002, NCJ 203301, July 2004. 

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Law enforcement operations

• Federal agencies
• State agencies
• Local agencies
• Multiagency task forces
• Drug testing for applicants

Federal agencies

As of June 2002 Federal agencies employed more than 93,000 full-time personnel authorized to make arrests and carry firearms, according to data provided by agencies in response to a Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey. Compared with data reported by agencies for June 2000, employment of such personnel increased by about 6%.

The DEA employed 4,020 officers with the authority to make arrests and carry firearms as of June 2002. These DEA agents primarily investigate major narcotics violators, enforce regulations governing the manufacture and dispensing of controlled substances, and perform various other functions to prevent and control drug trafficking.

The FBI employed 11,248 full-time personnel with arrest and firearm authority. These agents investigate more than 200 types of Federal crimes. The FBI has concurrent jurisdiction with the DEA over drug offenses under the Controlled Substances Act.

Source: BJS, Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2002, NCJ 199995, August 2003.

State agencies

Among those State agencies with 100 or more officers, 76% operated a full-time
drug enforcement unit in 1999.

Local agencies

Of those local agencies with 100 or more officers a large percentage operated a full-time drug enforcement unit in 2000.

In 2000 about 9 in 10 local police departments regularly performed drug enforcement functions. More than 90% of the departments in each population category of 2,500 or more had drug enforcement responsibilities, including all of those serving 100,000 or more residents. Departments with drug enforcement responsibilities employed 98% of all local police officers.

Source: BJS, Local Police Department 2000, NCJ 196002, January 2003.

In 2000, 95% of sheriffs' offices regularly performed drug enforcement functions. More than 90% of the offices in each population category below 250,000 had drug enforcement responsibilities. Offices with drug departments in jurisdictions with a population of less than 25,000 were responsible for drug enforcement, compared to 79% of those in jurisdictions with 500,000 to 999,999 residents.

Source: BJS, Sheriffs' Offices 2000, NCJ 196534, January 2003.

Multiagency task force

In 2000 an estimated 21% of local police departments had one or more officers assigned full time to a multiagency drug enforcement task force. About two-thirds of all local police officers worked for a department that assigned officers to a task force. About 5,800 officers were assigned full time to a drug task force.

The average number of officers assigned full time ranged from 35 in departments serving a population of 1 million or more to about 2 in those serving fewer than 100,000 residents.

Source: BJS, Local Police Departments 2000, NCJ 196002, January 2003.

In 2000 an estimated 40% of sheriffs' offices had one or more officers assigned full time to a multiagency drug enforcement task force. About 2,900 sheriffs' deputies were assigned full time to a drug task force. The average number ranged from 12 in jurisdictions with a population of 1 million or more to 1 in those serving fewer than 25,000 residents.

Source: BJS, Sheriffs' Offices 2000, NCJ 196534, January 2003.

In 1994, 46% of all prosecutors' offices indicated that at least one prosecutor has been a member of a multijurisdictional task force. Of offices on such a task force, 76% indicated drug enforcement to be the goal. In 1992, 30% of prosecutors' offices reported involvement with a multijurisdictional task force. Almost 80% of these offices also were involved with a drug task force.

Source: BJS, Prosecutors in State Courts, 1992 and 1994, NCJ 145319, June 1996.

Over 80% of full-time offices in large jurisdictions had at least one prosecutor who served as a member of a multijurisdictional task force. The percentages of full-time large offices with at least one prosecutor serving on a multi-jurisdictional task force were --

Drug testing for applicants

State agencies

In 1997, 82% of State agencies with 100 or more officers use drug test screening
as one of their procedures for selecting new officer recruits.

Source: BJS, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, 1997: Data for Individual State and Local Agencies with 100 or More Officer, NCJ 171681, April 1999.

Local agencies

In 2000, at least 8 in 10 departments in each population category of 25,000 or more administered drug tests in the selection of new officer recruits. About 7 in 10 departments serving a population of 2,500 to 24,999, and 5 in 10 departments serving fewer than 2,500 residents did also.

Source: BJS, Local Police Departments 2000, NCJ 196002, January 2003.

In 2000, Departments serving a population of 100,000 or more were the most likely to administered drug tests in the selection of new officer recruits, with percentages in these categories ranging from 73% to 88%. Departments serving a population of under 10,000 (37%) were the least likely to test any officers for drug use.

Source: BJS, Sheriffs' Offices 2000, NCJ 196534, January 2003.

Drug testing of applicants for sworn positions in local police and sheriffs' departments, by size of population served, 1997

	Percent of agencies with a drug testing program
Type of agency and population served	Any type of testing program		Mandatory (all are tested)			Random selection process		Use of drugs is suspected
Local police departments (sworn positions)
All sizes	61	%		22	%	16	%	31	%
1,000,000 or more	87	%		6	%	62	%	62	%
500,000-999,999	83			8		54		67
250,000-499,999	87			17		41		63
100,000-249,999	85			18		33		60
50,000-99,999	83			21		20		56
25,000-49,999	80			19		18		57
10,000-24,999	73			24		16		44
2,500-9,999	68			26		20		32
Under 2,500	49			20		12		21
Sheriffs' departments (sworn positions)
All sizes	61	%		23	%	20	%	25	%
1,000,000 or more	86	%		32	%	25	%	46	%
500,000-999,999	77			16		22		61
250,000-499,999	87			35		16		39
100,000-249,999	83			31		24		40
50,000-99,999	71			29		21		27
25,000-49,999	65			26		23		26
10,000-24,999	56			21		21		20
Under 10,000	45			16		16		19
Note: Some agencies had more than one type of testing. Source: BJS, Local Police Departments 1997, NCJ 173429, February 2000 and Sheriffs' Departments 1997 NCJ 173428, February 2000.

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