Pubdate: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 Source: Waco TribuneHerald: Editorial Contact: Highway drug traps LacyLakeview's plan to patrol Interstate 35 could push balance There's a delicate balance in law enforcement between overdoing it and underdoing it. Underdoing it means the public is not getting the protection it pays for. Overdoing it is when policecitizen relations become an usversesthem situation even for law abiding citizens. The speed traps operated by some overzealous police departments are an example of overdoing the enforcement of traffic laws. Another example is the abuse of federal forfeiture laws by some police departments around the country. A plan that appears very close to that delicate balance is one by LacyLakeview to assign a fulltime officer to patrol the community's twomile jurisdiction of Interstate 35 in an effort to put a dent in the flow of drugs from Mexico and other points. LacyLakeview Police Chief Mike Nicoletti believes that a fulltime officer assigned to spot traffic violations along his community's twomile stretch of IH35 will help curb the drug flow and pay for itself by using the federal forfeiture laws to confiscate cars, cash and other personal belongings of individuals caught carrying illegal drugs. Nicoletti has noticed the success of other Central Texas towns that have used the forfeiture laws to confiscate cars and raise revenue by going after I35 motorists with drugs. One problem with this is that the controversial federal forfeiture laws were passed with the idea that they would be used to fight organized crime and wealthy drug lords. Nowadays these laws also are being used to confiscate the property of citizens involved in nickelanddime drug cases, hardly the drug lords the law intended to target. In addition, the law allows confiscation of property in some cases completely out of line with the severity of the offense. In other cases, it allows confiscation of property even when the individual is not convicted of a crime. That's why the law now is under review to be abolished or severely limited. Some police along Interstate 10 in Louisiana have used and abused the federal forfeiture law to enrich their departments and local judicial system with the same stated purpose of interdicting drug flow along the interstate. Those abuses made national news and prompted calls to abolish or amend the law. Other communities have used their jurisdictions over sections of state or federal highways to strictly enforce traffic laws to the point that they gained a reputation as being speed traps more concerned with collecting fines than highway safety. LacyLakeview must be careful that its plans to curb drug traffic along a tiny stretch of I35 do not tip law enforcement's delicate balance into the overdoingit category.