Washington Post
July 18, 2001
Hutchinson Says DEA Would Fight Profiling
By Cheryl W. Thompson
Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), President Bush's nominee to head the Drug Enforcement Administration, said yesterday he would not tolerate racial profiling instruction by DEA agents who teach local police drug enforcement tactics.
Several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee conducting Hutchinson's confirmation hearing expressed concern about racial profiling and what steps he would take to ensure the DEA didn't engage in it.
Hutchinson offered no specific remedies but said that "I know that we already have a policy that prohibits racial profiling and that needs to be enforced. I will certainly go over there [DEA] with that intent."
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) noted that while blacks make up 13 percent of U.S. drug users, they make up 35 percent of the people arrested for drugs and 55 percent of those convicted of drug crimes. "The majority of users are not black or brown; they are white," Durbin said.
Hutchinson, 50, is a former federal prosecutor. He has a reputation in Congress as a conservative who supports local drug courts, which offer alternatives to prison that usually combine treatment with the threat of incarceration.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have established drug courts as part of the effort to reduce the number of nonviolent drug offenders in the nation's prisons.
Hutchinson said he favors more emphasis on treatment but added that stepping up law enforcement also is key to winning the drug war. "Many times it's a law enforcement activity that leads someone into treatment," he said.
If he is confirmed, Hutchinson will head an agency with 9,000 employees and a $1.5 billion annual budget.
Hutchinson has won support of Republicans and Democrats. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called Hutchinson "a man of integrity and intelligence who is committed to reducing drug abuse in this country."
Hutchinson was elected to Congress in 1997. He was considered earlier this year as a possible deputy attorney general, but ties to his alma mater, Bob Jones University in South Carolina, hurt his chances.
The institution, which awarded Hutchinson a bachelor's degree in 1972 and an honorary law degree in 1999, prohibited interracial dating until March 2000.
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