Pubdate: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 Source: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (MS) Copyright: 2002 Journal Publishing Company Contact: http://www.djournal.com/djournal/site/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/823 Author: Jeremy Hudson, Daily Journal Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture) PONTOTOC SHERIFF'S OFFICE MAY MOVE FROM NMNU The County's Interlocal Agreement with the Nmnu Expires Oct. 1. PONTOTOC - Sheriff Leo Mask is contemplating a move from underneath the North Mississippi Narcotics Unit's umbrella that would allow him to take Pontotoc County's drug problems into his own hands. The NMNU is an 11-agency organization that pools each agency's resources, in theory providing members with more manpower, equipment and funding. When members of the unit make a drug-related property or cash seizure, the items are turned over to the NMNU and the funds derived are used to purchase equipment and assist each agency with their drug force. "If people are selling drugs in our county and we arrest them, the people of Pontotoc County should benefit from it," Mask said. "We shouldn't have to turn everything over and just get a portion of it. We were elected to take care of the people in Pontotoc County and that's all I'm trying to do. "I've got an open mind to it, but they are going to have to show me how we'll be better off with them than without them," Mask said. The county's interlocal agreement with the NMNU expires Oct. 1. Mask and NMNU officials are scheduled to meet with the county's Board of Supervisors Sept. 30 to discuss continuing or ending the agreement. The NMNU provides the Pontotoc County Sheriff's Department with additional officers, drug "buy money" for undercover officers and something else necessary in undercover drug work - surveillance equipment. "We supply them with anything they need to make a drug case the right way," said NMNU Sgt. Marvis Bostick. "You can't do it the right way without the equipment. The start-up cost with purchasing surveillance equipment is thousands of dollars." The NMNU also pays 75 percent of the salary for Mask's narcotics officer, but Mask said his department can more than make up for the amount provided to it by the NMNU by keeping the property and cash seized inside the county. "We can have a good narcotics unit ourselves," Mask said. "If my guys didn't work, I wouldn't get out of (NMNU). But my guys will get out there and work. "Ninety-five percent of the cases here we make ourselves," Mask said. Bostick said the unit doesn't have an opinion as to whether Pontotoc County should stay with the unit, but said it makes sense for smaller agencies to pool their resources. "We are not political," Bostick said. "We don't get into talking about who should stay and who should go. I just see how much of an advantage it is for an agency to be with us." Bostick recently made a presentation before the Pontotoc County Board of Supervisors where he pointed out the county has profited $25,000 within the past four fiscal years. The NMNU officers would still be welcomed to work drug cases in Pontotoc County, Mask said, but the county would get a percentage of any seizures made there. Mask said his department will be able to pay for officers, vehicles and surveillance equipment, like cameras and voice-recording wires, with the money and property seized in the county. He said the county makes more than 50 drug-related arrests each year and estimates the department could bring in about $100,000 by operating its own narcotics unit. Bostick said the benefits of working with a group would far outweigh those of keeping what is seized within one's own county. "If I was the administrator of a smaller agency, I would definitely want to be a part of the unit rather than be on my own," Bostick said. Mask said any move would not necessarily be a permanent one. "If we get out and see that it was a mistake, nobody has said we couldn't get back in," Mask said. "We're just looking at what's best for the county." - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager