Central area commander Andrew Smith posts today at the LAPD blog. He doesn't link to Steve Lopez's column in the Aug. 19 L.A. Times about observing drug sales downtown, so I will. Here's Capt. Smith:

I appreciate Steve Lopez’ frustration with the open air drug bizarre that he witnessed last Friday on Skid Row (Points West, August 19). Imagine the frustration my LAPD officers feel every day, trying to enforce the law they are sworn to uphold and bring order to the chaos downtown, within an entire system that is terribly broken...

So, with drugs and drug dealers on nearly every block, why don’t we just arrest them all? The answer is, we do. In 2005, in the 50 square blocks of Skid Row, we arrested more than 6,000 people for narcotics violations - up from 5,600 during 2004. If I sent my patrol officers out of the station with the orders to make drug arrests, they would all be back in no time, drug dealer and drugs in hand. Unfortunately, it takes two officers 4-6 hours to process a drug arrest…all day if the doper is sick or injured, and most of them are. With the officers in the station processing drug arrests, that thin line of police presence and protection is gone from Skid Row. That’s when the knifings, assaults, street robberies and murders occur. The drug crazed, the mentally ill, the parolees and gang members that thrive on Skid Row prey on those that are weaker and down-and-out when the police aren’t around.

Steve, the entire system is broken....

There is no incentive to stop selling drugs downtown. Under the new “Proposition 36” rules the California voters approved, any simple narcotics possession arrest results in a court order to “get into rehab” and no jail time…for as many as 7 separate arrests. First time rock cocaine and heroin dealers get probation when we catch them. Second offense is 180 days in jail (the Penal Code mandates 3, 4, or 5 years). And with the County’s early release practice, that second strike heroin dealer is out of jail after serving 10% of his sentence – only 18 days. Third offense is 270 days (actually serving 27), and so on. System Broken.

The prisons are full, the jails are full and the courts are so busy last month they took a plea of 120 days county jail (serving 12 days) for a major downtown cocaine trafficker who was facing an exposure of 15 years state prison time.

There's more at the LAPD blog.