GUARDSMEN HELP COUNTY BATTLE METH

Troops Help With Surveillance

Ever since methamphetamine began to exhibit signs of an epidemic in western
Kentucky in the late 1990s, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department has
taken an aggressive stance against the proliferation.

A prime tool in the county's fight against meth during the past three years
has been cooperation with specially trained Kentucky National Guardsmen,
according to Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain.

The full-time guardsmen are part of the Joint Support Operations unit,
which commonly assists law enforcement authorities in wiping out marijuana
patches in eastern Kentucky.

The guardsmen provide the sheriff's department with manpower and equipment
to assist in the surveillance of suspected meth labs or anhydrous ammonia
tanks.

"We have a very close working relationship with the National Guard," Cain
said. "They have been a tremendous help to us. We certainly would not be
able to man the surveillances that we have without their assistance."

Because of Daviess County's aggressive stance against meth, the county is
the prime recipient of assistance from the National Guard in western Kentucky.

Cain said the covert nature of investigations prevents him from disclosing
specifics of how the guardsmen are used. Cain said one or two sheriff's
deputies are always with the guardsmen during operations.

When the possibility first surfaced of using a military organization to
assist a local police agency in the fight against drugs, Cain had
reservations, he said. Those concerns were eased when Cain was exposed to
the motivation and professionalism of the guardsmen.

"We've been able to develop a close working relationship with those
individuals," Cain said.

The sheriff's department allocates part of a $1.5 million federal grant
toward the pay for the use of the guard, he said. The money is shared
throughout the year by law enforcement agencies throughout western Kentucky.

Kentucky State Police Sgt. Ronnie Ray of London, who is the marijuana
eradication supervisor of the Governor's Marijuana Eradication Strike
Force, said Kentucky receives invaluable help from the guardsmen in the
battle against drugs.

The eradication strike force is composed of 17 local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies who rely on guardsmen to provide transportation and
manpower, he said.

The Guard has about seven helicopters that either circle above the ground
to provide surveillance or allow law enforcement to rappel into eastern
Kentucky fields during marijuana eradication efforts, Ray said. The Guard
also helps gather and dispose of marijuana plants, he said.

When law enforcement officers are dispatched to remote marijuana patches,
they are sometimes accompanied by as many as 200 guardsmen who serve full
time with the eradication unit for four to six months a year, he said.

The guardsmen are intended to serve strictly in a support role, Ray said.
They do not have the police powers to arrest and must be accompanied by
sworn officers, he said.

Ray said he was not as familiar with the Guard's meth enforcement but
estimated three to eight guardsmen may be used to perform surveillance on a
suspected meth location.

Often in the winter when the guardsmen are less busy with marijuana
eradication they may assist police agencies in other areas of the state
with problems related to meth, Ray said.

Without the assistance of the guardsmen, many departments could not afford
to crack down as hard on marijuana patches or meth.

Last summer the eradication force seized and destroyed 430,000 marijuana
plants, Ray said. Without the Guard's help, that would not have been
possible, he said.

U.S. Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act during the Reconstruction that
followed the Civil War. The act prohibited the use of the military in
civilian law enforcement.

The act separates civilian and military authority. It was amended in 1981
to permit increased Department of Defense support of drug interdiction and
other law enforcement activities.

"They don't take any actions as far as arrests toward a civilian," Ray
said. "They are strictly a support role. It just boosts us up."