Pubdate: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 Source: Huntsville Item (TX) Copyright: 2006 Huntsville Item and Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. Contact: http://www.itemonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1126 Author: Stewart Smith LAW OFFICERS: WAR ON DRUGS NO SIMPLE MATTER Drugs and cyber-crimes were two of the hot topics addressed by local law enforcement officials at Monday evening's monthly Diversity Forum. Huntsville Police Chief Jean Sanders and Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae provided basic information on the structures of their respective departments but also fielded questions from the audience. McRae was questioned at length about the presence and impact of drugs inside the county. The sheriff's office made more than 4,000 arrests this year, an estimated 50 percent of which McRae said are drug-related offenses. McRae said none of the offenses are out of the ordinary and actually mirror most of the crimes experienced in larger cities, just "on a smaller scale." Citing a budgeted $69 billion a year for "the war on drugs" and an increase nationally in drug-related crimes and likening the illegality of drugs to Prohibition in the 1920s, one attendee asked McRae how "decreasing the value of drugs" would affect local law enforcement's ability to do their job. McRae said it's not as simple as reducing the value of narcotics. "There are so many other issues that pertain to narcotics in addition to the profit margin: the way people act, the violent crimes that are committed," McRae said, inferring the questioner was referring to the possibility of legalizing some narcotics. "As to whether or not decreasing the value of drugs would have an effect on crime ... there is a possibility to a certain percentage. Is that what we should do? No sir. Not at all." Sanders also weighed in on the issue, saying that addiction to drugs is often a more powerful motivator than profit. "If we could cut down on the individuals who want to buy the drugs .. that could reduce the value of the drugs and the traffic of them," she said. "I think we have a better chance of dealing with it that way: breaking the addiction, education." And with last week's sex offender trial still fresh on the community's mind, Sanders was questioned about local efforts to catch Internet predators. Sanders said a group of investigators is currently in place with both the city and county with the capacity to work those types of cases but the manner of the work can often take a toll on them. "They are time consuming. Basically you take on a different personality and are basically another person, usually a young girl, online. You are putting out hooks and seeing who you can catch," Sanders said. "But again, it is time consuming and not something they can do full time. I don't have a detective dedicated solely to cyber-crime. It's one of those situations where you hit and miss. "It's when the detectives can find time to do it in between all of the other cases they are working." The Diversity Forum's second annual dinner will be held Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Walker County Fairgrounds. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman