If Jeff Baker knocks on your door, it's probably not a social call.
If he shows up at your house, or on your street corner, it probably means you're selling drugs. And after a chat with Baker, you're likely to relocate your business or change your line of work altogether.
Baker heads Simone Consulting, a unique drug mitigation firm in Oakland, California. Baker and his associates work for cities and counties to close down crack houses, clean out the heroin trade, and get addicts into treatment. It's a mammoth undertaking, and not one for the squeamish.
"There is an element of danger," says Baker, a 6-foot-5 African-American who exudes both calmness and charismatic energy. "We take an
enormous amount of risk. That's one of the things cities and counties pay us for."
Baker's first task often is just to talk to drug dealers. He meets mom-and-pop dealers working from home and teens drumming up sales on the streets. He speaks to gang members with organized operations whose efficiency rivals fast food drive-ins. Most dealers are in poor, violent areas, and many are armed and nervous.
Even so, says Baker, most are willing to talk. "I'm not the police. I'm not there to arrest them. I'm there to give them information that's vital to their business. If I know about them, everybody knows about them, including the police."
Baker started the business last year, drawing upon his professional background and personal experience to do so. He grew up in Washington, D.C., then earned a political science degree at the University of California, Berkeley. He attended law school and went to work in government administration. Eventually he was hired by the city of Berkeley to respond to citizen complaints about drug dealing and drug abuse. That's where he found out how quickly drug operations can be shut down.
"People are always surprised that I can resolve things in a few days when the police can't do it in several months," Baker said. He doesn't need a search warrant or probable cause. He doesn't need to refer a case to a backlogged narcotics unit. "I can get involved right away."
Baker says his attitude is his best tool for negotiating with dealers.
He exudes respect for people and belief in his work. That belief comes in part from his personal experience -- a family member who is now terminally ill has been a heroin addict for 30 years. "I've seen it all. I've seen ODs. I know how bad it can get." Now 44 and a divorced father of two young daughters, ages 5 and 6, Baker wants to give them a better world to grow up in.
Making that kind of change requires more than shutting down
drug dealers. It requires a plan based on accurate data. Simone
Consulting prepares such a plan using police reports, arrest
records, census data and its own surveillance. With drug dealing
areas pinpointed, government agencies can set up methadone
programs, drug treatment centers, counseling, and recreation
centers for addicts and young people at risk.
Dealing with addiction is the key to effective drug mitigation, Baker says. Addicts are the customers driving the drug trade. If one dealer disappears, another will step in immediately. Addiction takes time to overcome, but with programs available, the
addicts are diverted from the dealers and from the petty theft, burglary, and robbery they commit to get drug money. Law enforcement, the main anti-drug program in most cities, can't address the addict population adequately, Baker says, so the cycle continues. "We're paying so much to lock people up. The health and human services model is cheaper and more effective than the law enforcement model. Taxpayers really begin to get their dollar's worth."
Most of Simone Consulting's work has been on the West Coast, but the firm is getting wider attention. Baker is meeting with representatives from two large East Coast cities, and has a contract with a government agency in the Midwest. Spending a lot of
time on the road can be draining, but Baker isn�t complaining. He's seen neighborhoods and communities blossom once their drug blight is lifted, and he wants to see more. "I'm driven because I think I have the answer. My biggest concern is that I can't be everywhere
at the same time."
