Pubdate: Thu, 23 Dec 2004
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2004 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Schuyler Kropf, Of The Post and Courier Staff

City police's I-95 patrols questioned

Charleston's controversial police patrols on Interstate 95 in Santee,
some 70 miles away, may soon be debated in City Council.

Some council members question Mayor Joe Riley's power to approve a
police operation so far outside the city borders, contending such
decisions should be made by the council, not the mayor.

"My position is that he's delegated a power he doesn't have," said
Councilman Bob George, who along with Councilman Henry Fishburne want
the issue included in an upcoming council meeting.

On Sunday, The Post and Courier reported a little-known contractual
agreement Police Chief Reuben Greenberg signed with Santee's police
chief to patrol a stretch of the I-95 corridor for drug traffickers.
In exchange, Greenberg's department gets one-half the proceeds from
drug seizures.

The agreement has been in place for more than 2-1/2 years, but members
of City Council said they knew nothing about it until contacted by the
newspaper.

The issue of the patrols flared briefly at the end of Tuesday's City
Council meeting. On Wednesday, George said he wasn't ready to condemn
the patrols outright, but said the mayor was wrong in acting alone.

"I think council has a right to discuss it and then decide whether
they want to do it or not," George said.

Riley said he supports Greenberg's prerogative to station police
officers as he sees fit, including in drug interdiction on a distant
interstate favored by drug-runners.

"He's my chief of police," Riley said at Tuesday's council meeting. "I
have great confidence in him, and this council is not going to get in
the business of deciding how police resources are allocated."

Riley repeated his stance Wednesday, adding that he supported creative
and aggressive ways of hunting drugs potentially bound for Charleston.

The car patrols have netted city police about $85,500 in cash, led to
seizures of a quantity of narcotics and the arrest of several
fugitives. However, the salaries to send two officers to Santee
several times a week during the past 30 months have run in the area of
$100,000.

George and Fishburne seek a debate on the issue after the holidays.
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MAP posted-by: Derek