Anaheim Ban in City Parks Gets Little Play : Crime: Only two warnings have been issued since the ordinance barring convicted drug offenders from the parks took effect Nov. 5.

It is literally a sign of Anaheim’s resolve against drug dealing in city parks. Convicted drug offenders “are prohibited,” reads the sign in Pearson Park, one of about a dozen now posted in community parks throughout the city.

But it is also a sign of a city’s desperate fight against a growing drug problem that has gripped the community, turning what once were safe havens into centers of illegal activity.

While most agree that the city’s ordinance excluding convicted drug offenders from city parks is well-intended, the immediate impact of the nationally unprecedented law appears minimal so far.

No citations have been issued and no arrests have been made since the ordinance took effect Nov. 5. As of last week, only two warnings had been handed out.

Police say the ordinance is difficult to enforce, and civil rights activists say it encroaches on citizens’ constitutional rights.

“The law is not going to be a magic cure-all,” said Steve Swaim, director of the city’s gang and drug task force. “It’s meant to be just another tool to help police.”

Despite the posting of signs in at least 11 city parks, drug sales were plainly visible during a reporter’s ride-along with police last week.

An undercover narcotics sting at Pearson Park on Dec. 10 resulted in the arrest of nine people on suspicion of drug offenses. All of the arrests were within a stone’s throw of the signs, and three of those arrested had previous convictions for dealing drugs.

Asked if the new law was having an impact, Sgt. Ronald Lovejoy, who heads the street narcotics unit, shook his head and nodded toward one young man who was being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing in Pearson Park.

“They ain’t playing tennis here,” he said.

Under the ordinance, drug offenders are prohibited from visiting the city’s 40 parks for up to three years after their convictions or release from custody.

The law applies to anyone convicted of selling drugs, possessing drugs for sale or, if the offense occurred in a park, possessing drugs. Violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor, and offenders face a maximum six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

City and community leaders praised the ordinance when it was passed. Officials from throughout the country called Anaheim leaders to ask about enacting something similar in their cities.

But after the initial fanfare, there has been little attention. In fact, few people at two city parks last week seemed aware of the ban.

Lovejoy said police appreciate the city’s concern and effort in trying to give officers another weapon to fight illicit drug activity. However, he said his narcotics officers primarily pursue felony crimes against drug offenders in parks.

“Two or three years in prison is going to keep them out of the park a lot longer than six months in the county jail,” Lovejoy said.

The ordinance, he said, is more useful for patrol officers. But with police officers having little time between calls, enforcement of the law has been limited.

Currently, when police officials do enforce the ban, they simply issue warnings to those in violation of the law. That is determined by field interviews and records checks. If a violator is caught in a city park a second time, he or she would be arrested.

Sgt. Lew Wuest of the department’s Community Action Policing team, said “it will take a while” before the law will have any impact. One problem, he said, is that the law “is cumbersome” and requires a lot of documentation by police to make a case stick.

“We have to show that they are drug offenders, that they’ve been warned and that they were in the park,” he said.

Eventually, he said, there will be a Police Department database identifying convicted drug offenders, which will help officers figure out who should not be in city parks.

City officials defend the ordinance but acknowledge that it is not a panacea for the drug problem.

Swaim said the ordinance was prompted by residents throughout the city who complained that the parks were no longer safe for family picnics or outings.

The drug activity in the parks has been so bad that the community group “Somebody” dumped nearly a ton of cow manure in La Palma Park in February, hoping that the stench would drive drug dealers from the area. But the stunt seemed to have little long-lasting impact other than to make the grass greener.

Harald Martin, an Anaheim police officer who organized the manure drop, said the new law could be effective if police take the time to enforce it.

“It requires an officer to spend more time to check (a suspect’s) record to see if he has a conviction,” Martin said. “It’s like any brand new weapon in their arsenal--they have to learn how to use it.”

In addition to the time issue, police and city officials say the enforcement of the law must be done carefully, to avoid violating a person’s civil rights. An officer must have “reasonable suspicion” that a person has done something illegal before he or she can be questioned about prior drug convictions, police said.

But civil rights activists still charge that the law is unconstitutional.

“On the face of it, it’s unconstitutional,” said Rebecca Juardo, an assistant professor at Western State University College of Law and a former staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. “Of course people don’t want drug dealing in the parks, but this is not the way to do it. . . .

“It’s a violation of their rights,” she said, referring to people previously convicted of drug offenses. “A park is a public place.”

The new law also doesn’t sit too well with Joe Serna, a 21-year-old Anaheim resident who was standing around a bench at Ponderosa Park with a few friends one weekday morning recently.

“I don’t think it’s right,” he said. “What if somebody who was convicted just wanted to enjoy the park with his family? They say he can’t do that? That’s discrimination.”

Asked if drug dealing occurs frequently in the park, Serna just smiled. His friends laughed.

“That (stuff) don’t happen here,” one said, as he walked away.

Police know otherwise.

“We know what they are up to in the parks,” Lovejoy said. “And we’re going to use every tool we can to hammer them and take back the parks and make them safe for the citizens of Anaheim.”