Pubdate: Fri, 21 Oct 2005
Source: Huntsville Item (TX)
Copyright: 2005 Huntsville Item and Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.itemonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1126
Author: Kelly Prew

NARCOTICS TASK FORCE DISBANDING

The Central East Texas Narcotics Task Force will disband after 15
years of service at the end of this month. That's good news for drug
dealers and users, and bad news for everyone else.

"It's going to get to the point where dealers are flagging people down
on I-45 to buy crack," said task force commander Michael Gann. "At
least now, they hide."

A grant that has funded the program for more than a decade has been
redirected by the state, and Walker County is in no shape to take on
the task of funding an operation that requires more than $500,000 a
year - $200,000 of which is salary and benefits payout.

Gann said without his team, Walker County will have some big
challenges to face when it comes to keeping illegal drugs off the streets.

"It's going to be a huge loss," he told the Item. "We're the only
people who work narcotics in the county. The sheriff's office has one
narcotics officer, but you just can't do really anything with one person.

"We average about 300 cases a year, anything from street-level buys to
conspiracies and seized homes. Meth labs are going to be a problem,
and this is a town full of crack dealers. When they find out we're
gone, I don't know how things will turn out."

Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae, District Attorney David Weeks and
County Judge Danny Pierce have fought hard in the last 10 days to save
a program they all agree is invaluable, but having just completed the
county budget and with no other grants on the table, odds are against
keeping the task force up and running.

"The state has changed the funding mechanism of the task force, and
they have given all our assets back, which is a substantial amount of
equipment," said Weeks. "We can fund the program through the end of
the month.

"We have tried to salvage at least part of it, but it just isn't
possible right now. This will be a tremendous loss to Walker County."

Gann's team of five will have to find jobs when the task force shuts
its doors Thursday. Lost will be, combined, more than 100 years of
narcotics experience and training; five county employees, several of
whom have been on the payroll for more than 10 years; hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of high-tech surveillance equipment; and
connections to informants and underground drug trafficking that, in
some cases, took years to make.

"When you're trying to put something like this together, experience is
so critical," McRae said. "It's not one of those fields where you can
jump in and just start working. It's something you have to know how to
work and stay within the boundaries of civil rights and the law."

Pierce echoed those concerns, and said the county will go to great
lengths in the coming year to rebuild the powerful law enforcement
asset.

"We're all afraid the bad guys will rejoice when they are able to see
the pressure lifted, and that is unfortunate," he said. "We have so
many young people in this community which happens to sit on a major
artery (I-45) from the south. We're just a target, and I do think we
may be affected more in this county than some others. With the task
force, it really slowed things down, and it has been a tremendous help
to our county, enforcing the law."

The issue hit hard with McRae, who served on the task force for nearly
10 years before being elected sheriff.

"During my time, we did a great deal of undercover work and work with
confidential informants. I was actually the first person in Walker
County certified to process methamphetamine laboratories.

"The task force served six counties, and I think disbanding it will
affect our area a great deal. Narcotics is the root of many evils, and
individuals will do whatever it takes to acquire them, steal property
for example. Without the task force, the whole community of law
enforcement will have to absorb the workload without additional manpower."

Fortunately, one of McRae's first duties as sheriff was to establish a
first-of-its-kind narcotics division for the county, and since Jan. 1,
the small department has made 175 to 200 arrests.

"We want to tell the community that as far as the sheriff's
department, we'll continue to hack away at the problem, and we want
citizens to continue to report and provide information to the
narcotics division. We're not going anywhere."

Pierce said the task force, which includes manpower from Chambers and
Liberty counties as part of a multi-county program, had been shifted
around under state agencies twice in recent years.

"I guess it was coming for some time, but no one really warned us. I
just heard about it 10 days ago," he said. "The only option is for the
individual counties to take over programs like ours across the state.
Chambers County is trying to self fund their part, but there's no
telling how long that will last.

"In our case, the decision was all about timing. It really came 45 to
60 days too late for us to do anything about it. Something will
obviously have to be done, and we will deal with it one way or another." 
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