West Windsor’s top cop wonders why drugs find their way into affluent district
By: David Campbell
WEST WINDSOR — Police Chief Frank Cox has few illusions about drugs in schools.
He knows that the drug arrests two weeks ago at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South won’t likely stop the flow of drugs into the district. As long as there is a demand for drugs in the schools, he knows there will probably be another kid willing to pick up the fallen mantle of the dealer.
And, like all the officers who took part in the arrests, Chief Cox has mixed emotions. And, like other members of the community who had to look on as their sons, neighbors and friends were rounded up and shipped off to the Mercer County youth house in Trenton on drug distribution charges, Chief Cox has some unanswered questions about the incident and its implications.
The main question for him and others in the affluent community is short but not simple:
Why?
Drugs are not new to Mercer County, nor are they new to Chief Cox, who remembers drug busts in the late 1960s and early ’70s. But back then, he says, it wasn’t the synthetic drug Ecstasy that was landing kids in the emergency room.
“In those days, for those of us old enough to remember, we had some serious problems with kids mainlining heroin,” he said. “The 1960s were a much different environment than what it is now.”
And while the use of hard drugs has declined since then, he said, the recent arrests should dispel the illusions of anyone who may have thought, ‘not in this town, and certainly not my kid.’
“The question that I’m asked, and other officers too, is why did the kids do this. They certainly didn’t need the money,” Chief Cox said. “If you saw the vehicles that these kids had, and see the homes that they come from, we all ask each other the same question: Why did they do this?
“From what we understand, most of them had good grades,” he continued. “Some had been accepted at great colleges, and we sit around sometimes and try to rationalize why these kids are doing this. Is it to be the big man on campus? To be the big shot?”
For parents and others in the community who thought that money and careful upbringing were a kind of guarantee against something like this, the arrests were a “wake up call,” according to the chief.
The bust was also a rude awakening for local police, even though they have long known there are drugs in West Windsor.
“I think it was surprising not that there were drugs around, but the number of people who were caught selling drugs,” Chief Cox said. “Each time the detectives filled us in, there seemed to be another one or two more operatives out there, and some of us shook our heads that there were that many people selling drugs in West Windsor.”
In all, 12 individuals were arrested in the May 1 bust, including eight who were students at High School South. Three others attended out-of-district schools, and one was 22 years old. The arrests followed a five-month investigation by the local police, county Prosecutor’s Office and district officials.
“I think the scariest part about this is that we busted 11 (students), there could be more that we didn’t get,” Chief Cox said. “How many kids did these 11 touch? How many of our youth were they dealing to?
“You’ve got to have a pretty good customer base to keep 11 people in business,” he said.
Despite the successful sting, Chief Cox said the department realizes its job is far from over.
“We’re getting this stuff off the street for the time being, at least, but there may be people who are going to pick this business right up again,” he said. “We’re not naive about that. But for now, maybe we’ve slowed it a little bit.”
Chief Cox said the drug bust was a bitter pill for many officers in the department, some of whom had forged relationships with students through a number of youth-outreach programs.
“I think there are mixed feelings among all police officers,” he said. “I don’t think there’s one officer here who feels great that we got 11 of our kids into trouble.”
Despite any regret police may feel for having to make arrests in the school, the blame rests with the dealers themselves, Chief Cox said.
“We didn’t make this bust to get these kids in trouble. These kids got themselves in trouble,” he said. “We also know that these kids have careers in front of them, and good colleges to go to, and it didn’t make any of us feel any good if that’s going to affect their careers and college goals.”
But the dealers gave police and school officials little choice, he said.
“I don’t think any officer here feels it’s his or her fault that some 17- or 18-year-old is not going to be able to get into college, when they created the situation themselves,” Chief Cox said. “And we have to look out for the rest of the youth in the community to make sure that they’re not infected by these drugs.”
Parent reaction to the arrests was equally mixed, the chief said.
“One parent called me and actually thanked me for the time that the detectives took with him to explain everything, what his son had done and what the ramifications are now,” he said. “And he had already taken steps to get his son into some counseling, hoping that that would help his son. He recognized that there is a problem.”
Then there has been another response by some parents, he said.
“We hear through the grapevine that there are other parents who are telling everybody that their son was set up by the police,” he said. “To me, that’s a shame, because it says to the kid, ‘See, I can do whatever I want and mommy and daddy are going to get me out of this,’ instead of realizing right off the bat, ‘OK, my son has a problem. Let’s see if we can get him some help, and let’s move on with his life.’”