Police Veteran Picked to Head Drug War : Narcotics: Lee Brown’s nomination signals a shift in policy to treatment and prevention. But he faces major obstacles.

President Clinton appointed veteran law enforcement official Lee P. Brown as the Administration’s top drug official Wednesday in a move intended to shift a measure of federal drug control resources from law enforcement to treatment and prevention.

Brown, 55, who formerly headed police forces in Atlanta, Houston and New York, would be the first police official to head the office that coordinates drug-control policy throughout the government, Clinton said.

Clinton, who plans to elevate the office to Cabinet-level status even while drastically trimming its staff, told a Rose Garden audience: “We have to do a better job of preventing drug use and treating those who seek treatment. And we must do more to protect law-abiding citizens from those who victimize them in the pursuit of drugs or profits from drugs.”

Brown, standing alongside the President, said his police work had taught him “firsthand the problems caused by illegal drugs in America.

“I have seen the despair brought about by drug abuse,” he said. “I’ve seen the misery caused by illicit drugs.”

Some drug-control advocates said Brown’s appointment would enhance an office that languished under former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez in the George Bush Administration. Martinez had little firsthand experience and the office became bloated and heavily politicized, the advocates said, while the Bush Administration pursued a drug policy that relied too heavily on law enforcement.

Still, some said that Brown, if confirmed by the Senate, as expected, may face major obstacles in raising drug abuse to a top-level issue because of Clinton’s plan to cut the office’s staff from 146 to 25 employees and because of Clinton’s perceived view of drug policy as a second-level issue.

Until Wednesday, the President had scarcely mentioned the problem since taking office.

Despite the staff cuts, Clinton’s overall drug-control budget is $13 billion, about the same as that of the Bush Administration. The President said Wednesday, however, that it includes “a 10% increase in treatment funds for 1994, and will make drug treatment an important part of the national health care that will be presented to the Congress and the American people.”

Some experts, who had lobbied the White House to appoint a social scientist, said they could only hope that Brown would stress treatment and education rather than punishment and prosecution. Howard Josepher, executive director of Arrive, a New York job training and education center for drug abusers, said he hoped Brown would be “open to progressive ideas” in line with his past statements that drug education should start in the classroom.

Brown’s nomination was immediately hailed by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), two congressional chairmen who helped establish the Office of National Drug Control Policy five years ago.

“Lee Brown is a rare breed, a highly respected law enforcement official who knows that treatment and prevention are an essential aspect of the drug war,” said Conyers, chairman of the House Government Operations Committee.

Brown, the son of a migrant laborer, received a Ph.D. in criminology from UC Berkeley after serving eight years as a patrolman in San Jose.

He was Atlanta’s public safety commissioner for four years during police and FBI investigations into the slayings of many young blacks.

Wayne B. Williams was convicted of two of the killings in 1982 and Brown helped close investigations into 21 similar slayings as a result.

From 1982 to 1990, Brown served as Houston’s police chief, and was widely credited with easing racial tension in the department and improving its image.

His last law enforcement post was as New York City’s police commissioner for 2 1/2 years under Mayor David N. Dinkins. He was credited with helping bring down New York’s crime rate with his technique of “community policing”--getting officers out of their patrol cars and into neighborhoods to learn about specific problems.

But Brown subsequently faced criticism over alleged corruption within the nation’s largest police force and abruptly resigned last September, saying he needed to spend more time with his ailing wife, who has since died.

Profile: Lee P. Brown

Age: 55

Education: Doctorate in criminology from UC Berkeley.

Experience: Headed police forces in New York City, Houston and Atlanta; a professor at Texas Southern University since last fall.

Quote: “If I were a crime czar and I had one decision to make about what to do to deal with crime, I’d make meaningful employment a national policy. I see that big gap between the haves and the have-nots as a police problem waiting to happen.”

Source: Times wire services