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." - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)