Undercover School Buy Program for Spring Semester of 1999

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, June 1, 1999
Undercover School Buy Program
Spring Semester – 1999

When:
Tuesday, June 2, 1999
2:00 p.m.

Where:
Los Angeles Police Department
Parker Center Auditorium
150 North Los Angeles Street
Los Angeles, Calif.

On Tuesday, June 2, 1999, at 2:00 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department will conduct a Press Conference to discuss the Undercover School Buy Program for the Spring Semester of 1999.

During the 1999 Spring School Semester, the Los Angeles Police Department, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Unified School District, assigned police officers to work undercover in and around Los Angeles City high schools. The objectives of the operation were to investigate the sale and trafficking of illegal drugs on high school campuses and to identify and arrest the drug dealers. Some of the high schools involved were: Franklin High School, Gardena High School, University High School and North Hollywood High School to name a few.

Beginning January 4, 1999, and ending June 2, 1999, the officers made 225 purchases from 187 dealers. A systematic effort to apprehend these dealers began April 19, 1999, and will continue until all are in custody. This present operation, as with those in the past, confirmed that a variety of drugs are still available on our high school campuses. The drugs purchased and confiscated during this program included Marijuana, Cocaine, and LSD.

The School Buy Program established in 1974 has again proven to be the most effective method to combat the sales of drugs on and around the City’s high school campuses. Most of the drug dealers arrested that were freely operating in the selected high schools would not have been discovered during any other type of police investigation. The student dealers arrested felt secure that they were dealing only to other students, while the adults taken into custody thought that by limiting their clientele to high school age youth, they could avoid detection and arrest.

Two former undercover police officers assigned to the School Buy Program will be available for interviews.

For Release 3:30 pm PST
June 1, 1999