WASHINGTON — Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will face a daunting set of challenges as the next drug czar, particularly in the Southwest, where violence involving Mexican drug gangs is spilling into the U.S., Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday.
As director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Kerlikowske will help develop and put in place a strategy to stem the Southwest border violence, Biden said in introducing the man President Barack Obama wants to coordinate the nation’s drug policy.
“Gil Kerlikowske has the expertise, experience and the sound judgment to lead our national efforts against drug trafficking and use, and he will make an excellent addition to my administration,” Obama said in a statement.
Biden, who added substance abuse to the list, said “the challenges facing the chief are going to be daunting.”
“Violent drug trafficking organizations are threatening both the United States and Mexican communities,” he told a White House audience.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said last month that he had asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to send resources and “1,000 more troops” to the border in Texas as violence continues to mount in northern Mexico.
But the president on Wednesday said that now is not the time to send troops.
“We’ve got a very big border with Mexico,” Obama told a group of reporters in Washington. “I’m not interested in militarizing the border.”
At the announcement of his nomination, Kerlikowske, 59, said reducing the drug trade rests on the government’s ability to reduce demand.
“And that starts with our youth,” he said. “Our nation’s drug problem is one of human suffering, and as a police officer but also in my own family, I have experienced the effects that drugs can have on our youth, our families and our communities.” That was a passing reference to his stepson, Jeffrey, who has an arrest record on drug charges.
Colleagues expect him to ramp up efforts to stem demand for illegal narcotics by emphasizing prevention and treatment.
“I would expect Gil to say there’s absolutely a role that enforcement plays, but what other things do we need to do at the community and the state and federal level on prevention and intervention in order to be successful?” San Jose, Calif., Police Chief Rob Davis, a friend of Kerlikowske’s and vice president of the police chief association, told the AP in a recent interview. “If all we do is arrest people for drugs, we’re missing the opportunity to get involved in the beginning and take people out of drugs. Gil gets that concept.”
Kerlikowske is a 36-year law enforcement veteran and has been Seattle’s top cop for nearly nine years.
Before joining the Seattle force, he held top police positions in two Florida cities — Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie — and in Buffalo, N.Y. He then served in the Clinton administration as deputy director of the Justice Department office that promotes community policing. He also is president of Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, which represents the 56 largest law enforcement agencies in the country.
The Senate must approve Kerlikowske’s nomination. He would succeed John Walters, who held the job in the George W. Bush administration.
The drug policy coordinator’s office will lose its Cabinet-level status, however, due to Biden’s experience and knowledge about federal drug policy. But Kerlikowske will be involved in decision-making and will have a direct line to Obama and Biden.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs rejected suggestions that the change in status amounted to a demotion. Kerlikowske will have “full access” to Obama, as do the administration’s other czars, Gibbs said Wednesday.
In his talk with reporters, Obama said he supported the Merida Initiative worked out between Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Bush to provide equipment and training to help Mexico fight traffickers and weed out corruption, The Dallas Morning News reported on its Web site Wednesday.
He promised to work closely with Calderon and to offer his own “comprehensive policy … in the next few months” to address U.S. drug demand, northbound smuggling and the flow of guns and cash into Mexico that he said had given cartels “extraordinary power.”
“We’re going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense,” Obama said. “I don’t have a particular tipping point in mind. I think it’s unacceptable if you’ve got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens.”
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