Waynesboro Police Chief Ric Wilson said if people in the community ever stop helping law officers, the war on drugs is over.
"No department has enough resources to spend all the time that is required to work drugs. That's just a fact,'' Wilson said. "You could use every person in the department, working seven days a week, 24 hours-a-day and it wouldn't be enough.
"That's why it is so important to have community involvement. You can't be effective without the community. They are the eyes and ears of the departments.''
Throughout the region, law enforcement officials rely on information obtained from community-minded individuals to help provide "leads'' that could develop into a drug case. |
Ric Wilson |
"I'd be willing to say 80-90 percent of our cases are generated through the public. Without the public support, we just couldn't make it,'' said Marion County Drug Task Force Director Rector Johnson.
"We're similar to CrimeStoppers,'' said Curtis Burns, the director of the Colbert County Drug Task Force. "We check up on all tips we get from the community, and a lot of the times they pay off.''
Burns said it may be nothing more than just a house where there are a lot of cars going in and out at certain times of the day.
"It's hard to keep secrets in small communities,'' added Lt. Scotty Lowery, of the Russellville Police Department. "When you hear one whisper you don't think a lot about it, but when you hear 10 whispers you listen closely.
"We get just about a call a week with a tip about the possibility of some type of illegal activity going on. And you have to check them out because you never know when that one tip could be the one that leads to a major arrest.''
With funding for special drug enforcement becoming harder to receive from state and federal sources, departments have had to find other ways to fund the interdiction effort.
Most departments use money from forfeitures to help finance drug enforcement.
"Our life blood is from seizures and fines,'' said Wilson.
Lawrence County Sheriff Bryan Hill said there is no way for small departments like his to have a drug task force without federal and state grant money.
"There's no way we could designate one or two people to work drugs with our limited manpower,'' Hill said. "We have to have the funding to have a separate department.''
Hill said his department also gets help from state and federal agencies in the fight against illegal drugs.
Another source of revenue for the task forces and departments is taxing items owned by people arrested for drug charges.
Tennessee and Alabama have taxes that can be placed on the illegal drugs by the departments of revenue.
"That has really helped us,'' Wilson said. "We're such a small department; any money we can get really helps.''
Wilson said the tax, or "Crack Tax'' as he refers to it, has helped a lot of small rural departments become more self-sufficient.
"Putting someone in jail is one thing, but being able to take away their personal belongs really makes an impression,'' he said. "This allows us to levy a tax on any tangible asset. And if they don't pay those taxes, those items will be sold at auction.''
Hill said the fight against drugs is costly because it can be so time consuming.
"Our cases can last two days or two years,'' Burns said. "A lot of our cases have been disposed of in a year, others it has taken 2-3 years.
"We're lucky that we have the (Alabama Department) Forensics Lab here in Florence that tests the drugs. That really speeds up the process.''
Some agencies have spent countless hours and resources trying to finalize a case only to watch it fall through in the last hours.
"There have been times when our officers have spent six months to a year or longer on a case, working it, developing it and then just about the time you think everything is ready for an arrest, something happens and it falls apart,'' Hill said. "It can get frustrating, but you have to keep watching and plugging away.''
Tom Smith can be reached at 740-5757 or tom.smith@timesdaily.com. |
