R. Gil Kerlikowske
6th Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Incumbent
Assumed office  May 7, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	John Walters
Born	November 23, 1949 Florida, United States
Spouse(s)	Anna Lazlo
Residence	Seattle, Washington, United States
Alma mater	University of South Florida

Richard Gil Kerlikowske^[1] (born November 23, 1949) is the current Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position generally referred to as the United States "Drug Czar".^[2] He assumed office on May 7, 2009.^[3]

Contents 1 Personal 2 Education 3 Career 3.1 Seattle Police Department 3.2 Community involvement 3.3 Director of the ONDCP 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Personal

Kerlikowske was raised in Florida by his mother and stepfather.^[4] He married Anna Laszlo in 1995. He has a son and daughter.

[edit] Education

[edit] Career

Kerlikowske was drafted into the Army in 1970, and was stationed in Washington, D.C.. part of his responsibility was saluting then-President Richard Nixon as he boarded the presidential helicopter.^[4] He began his law enforcement career in 1972 as a police officer for the St. Petersburg Police in Florida. He served as Chief of Police in Fort Pierce, Florida and Port St. Lucie, Florida. Both cities received the Attorney General's Crime Prevention Award. He later served as police commissioner for Buffalo, New York for about a year and a half.^[5]

He served as a member of the United States Justice Department, where he oversaw community policing grants. His work in Washington D.C. earned praise from then-Attorney General Janet Reno and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.^[6]

[edit] Seattle Police Department

Kerlikowske joined the Seattle Police Department in 2000. Mayor Paul Schell chose him as Seattle's new police chief in July 2001.

Kerlikowske oversaw the demonstrations marking the second anniversary of the controversial WTO conference in Seattle which had caused his predecessor to resign. Although the event was peaceful throughout the day, 140 were arrested after police issued orders to disperse in the evening.^[7] Some of those arrested were prominent labor leaders attempting to move the event to the Labor Temple and others who were caught in the arrest zone while leaving work. Some charges were later dismissed. The police department was later criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union for the handling of protests against the Iraq War and previous demonstrations in a 2003 letter to the mayor and Kerlikowske.^[8]

Kerlikowske faced criticism over the department's slow response to the 2001 Seattle Mardi Gras Riots that left one man dead and 70 people with injuries. During the incident, he ordered the police at the scene not to intervene, instead maintaining a perimeter around the violence. The City of Seattle acknowledged police strategy presented a public safety threat, and settled with the murder victim's family for just under $2,000,000. The next month, The Seattle Police Officers' Guild voted no confidence in the chief, citing both the Mardi Gras riot and his public reprimand of an officer for being rude to a group of alleged jaywalkers.^[9]

In 2003, a ballot measure in Seattle was proposed that would have directed the police department to consider marijuana possession (for personal use) a low priority. Kerlikowske opposed the ballot initiative, but said such arrests were already a low priority.

2003 was the first time in 15 years that Seattle did not have any shooting deaths involving officers. Kerlikowske said Tasers and other less-lethal tools were partly responsible.^[10] In September 2004, the local NAACP president asked to be Tased to better understand the complaints his organization had received. Kerlikowske joined him in a public demonstration in which they were both shocked at the same time.^[11][12]

In March 2007, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Minority Executive Directors Coalition called for his resignation. Seattle had just settled a lawsuit filed by a suspect who alleged that the police had used excessive force in a 2005 arrest. The department’s Office of Professional Accountability(OPA) recommended discipline for the three officers involved but action was not taken.^[13] The call for his resignation was also due to criticism of his alleged intervention in the internal investigation of two officers accused of violating the civil rights of a drug dealer during an arrest in January. The suspect claimed the officers roughed him up which was supported by video footage of the incident. The OPA Review Board accused him of taking extraordinary measures to protect the officers. The complaint was referred to the FBI, U.S. Attorney's district office, and Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for further investigation.^[14] None of these investigations turned up any evidence of corruption.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Community involvement

Kerlikowske is also the outgoing board chair of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a policy advocacy organization that supports policies related to crime prevention.

[edit] Director of the ONDCP

On February 11, 2009, it was reported that Kerlikowske had accepted an offer by President Barack Obama to become Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, succeeding John P. Walters.^[2] The Drug Policy Alliance issued a statement after the announcement of his nomination saying: "We're cautiously optimistic that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will support Obama's drug policy reform agenda".^[15] He assumed the office on May 7, 2009.^[3].

On May 13, 2009, Kerlikowske signaled that the Obama Administration would no longer use the term "War on Drugs", as it is counter-productive and it would demonstrate a favoring of treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce drug use.^[16]

In a May 22, 2009 interview on KUOW radio, he said any drug 'legalization' would be "waving the white flag", "legalization is off the the charts when it comes to discussion, from my viewpoint" and that "legalization vocabulary doesn't exist for me and it was made clear that it doesn't exist in President Obama's vocabulary." Specifically about marijuana, he said, "It's a dangerous drug" and about the medical use of marijuana, he said, "we will wait for evidence on whether smoked marijuana has any medicinal benefits - those aren't in."

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gil Kerlikowske

• List of U.S. executive branch czars

[edit] References

Political offices
Preceded by John Walters	Director of the National Drug Control Policy 2009–present	Succeeded by Incumbent

v • d • e Directors of National Drug Control Policy Bennett • Martinez • Brown • McCaffrey • Walters • Kerlikowske

v • d • e Barack Obama's Executive Office of the President Office Name Term Office Name Term White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel 2009– National Security Advisor Jim Jones 2009– White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Mona Sutphen 2009– Deputy National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon 2009– White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Jim Messina 2009– Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan Douglas Lute† 2009– Senior Advisor to the President David Axelrod 2009– Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes 2009– Senior Advisor to the President Peter Rouse 2009– Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security John O. Brennan 2009– Senior Advisor to the President and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement Valerie Jarrett 2009– Deputy National Security Advisor and NSC Chief of Staff White House Communications Director Denis McDonough Anita Dunn 2009- 2009- Director of Public Engagement Christina Tchen 2009– Deputy White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer 2009– Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz 2009– White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs 2009– Director, National Economic Council Lawrence Summers 2009– Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton 2009– Deputy Director, National Economic Council Diana Farrell 2009– Deputy Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki 2009– Deputy Director, National Economic Council Jason Furman 2009– Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest 2009– Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Paul Volcker 2009– Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau 2009– Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer 2009– White House Counsel Robert Bauer 2009– Member of the Council of Economic Advisors and Staff Director of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Austan Goolsbee 2009– Deputy White House Counsel Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro 2009– Member of the Council of Economic Advisors Cecilia Rouse 2009– Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Lisa Konwinski 2009– Director, Office of Management and Budget Peter R. Orszag 2009– Executive Clerk George T. Saunders† 2009– Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Zients 2009– Director, Office of Political Affairs Chief Technology Officer Patrick Gaspard Aneesh Chopra 2009– 2009– Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget Rob Nabors 2009– Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra 2009– United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk 2009– Director, Office of Presidential Personnel Don Gips 2009– Director, Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes 2009– Director of Scheduling and Advance Alyssa Mastromonaco 2009– Deputy Director, Domestic Policy Council Heather Higginbottom 2009– Director, White House Military Office vacant 2009– Director, Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Joshua DuBois 2009– Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu 2009– Director, Office of Health Reform Nancy DeParle 2009– Deputy Cabinet Secretary Liz Sears Smith 2009– Deputy Director, Office of Health Reform Jeanne Lambrew 2009– Staff Secretary Lisa Brown 2009– Director, Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner 2009– Director, Office of Management and Administration Bradley Kiley 2009– Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal 2009– Director, Oval Office Operations Micaela Fernandez 2009– Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers Edward B. Montgomery 2009– Personal Aide to the President Reggie Love 2009– Director, Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley 2009– Personal Secretary to the President Katie Johnson 2009– Director, Office of National AIDS Policy Jeffrey Crowley 2009– Special Projects Coordinator and Confidential Assistant to the President Eugene Kang 2009– Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske 2009– Chief of Staff to the First Lady Susan Sher 2009– Deputy Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy A. Thomas McLellan* 2009– White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers 2009– Director, Office of Urban Affairs Policy Adolfo Carrión, Jr. 2009– Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren 2009– *Senate-confirmation pending.   †Remained from previous administration(s).