POLICE CHANGE WAYS OF INVESTIGATING DRUGS

NAUVOO, Ill. -- Hancock County's involvement in the anti-drug West
Central Illinois Task Force came just in time, authorities said.

The county joined the Macomb, Ill.-based, multi-agency group after
the election of Sheriff John Jefferson in 1998.

It was a campaign issue for Jefferson, said Chief Deputy Bill
Ferrill. And it was a step that needed to be taken before
methamphetamine production became rooted in the county.

"We've seen a big increase," he said. "Three years ago, we didn't
have meth labs."

Illinois State Police Sgt. Mike Inman, the task force's lead
investigator, said the arrival of methamphetamine has made police
change their way of doing things.

Ever since Illinois legislators first let agencies band together into
task forces in 1985, he said, the typical anti-drug operation has
involved taking someone who doesn't look like a cop and sending him
or her try to buy drugs.

But what worked to take down a cocaine dealer isn't an effective way
to keep meth off the streets, Inman said.

More than half of those addicted to methamphetamine are mixing up
batches of the stuff themselves, he said.

That's a new phenomenon, Inman said. And it changes the job police
are required to do.

"The production end of cocaine occurred in the jungles of South
America. It didn't have a darned thing to do with American law
enforcement," he said.

But since meth arrived in the area, Inman said officers have been
trying to stop the drug before it gets made.

"The dynamics of methamphetamine are so different that we have short-
circuited the process," he said. "We feel we're really dropping the
ball if we have to wait until meth is made."

New laws against possession of methamphetamine ingredients while
intending to make the drug are aimed at stopping production before it
starts.

There's also a law on the books making it a felony to carry anhydrous
ammonia in an unapproved container.

By getting meth cooks before they have the chance to make up a batch,
Inman said, society benefits.

"They haven't produced any hazardous waste," he said. "They haven't
polluted with who knows what."

The ingredients are relatively cheap, he said. But a large number of
meth cooks look to cut their costs further by just stealing what they
need.

"I don't know how many of our cases we develop from shoplifting," he said.

Ferrill said his deputies regularly trade information with the task
force, as well as with anti-drug groups in adjoining Lee County in
Iowa and Adams County, Ill.

"People will call us up," Ferrill said.

Store employees recognize when someone is buying the ingredients for
meth, he said. Some require people to leave their names before buying
the main ingredients.

One of the big advantages of task force membership has been access to
trained personnel to clean up the hazardous chemicals involved in
meth production, Ferrill said.

Task force officers wear suits of fire-resistant Nomex -- the same
stuff NASCAR drivers wear beneath their uniforms -- under their
clothes.

When cleaning up a known meth lab site, Inman said he goes for more
protection and puts on a level B hazmat suit.

But there are times when even these levels of protection are no match
for the dangers of methamphetamine.

There was a time when a bullet-proof vest afforded nearly all the
protection a law officer needed. But Inman said there's nothing that
will protect an officer making a traffic stop from the possibility of
an explosion or deadly gas from inside the car.

Even if there's no lab in the car, Inman said encountering a meth
user comes with its own set of dangers.

Methamphetamine users become paranoid -- a condition that becomes
aggravated by days without sleep. The drug also gives users a
superhuman tolerance to pain.

"You're going to need help," he told a group of firefighters,
ambulance personnel and township road commissioners at a Nauvoo,
Ill., training session.

Inman remembers a roadside safety check in Gulfport, Ill., during
which a fellow officer stopped a man later found to be a meth user
and put him in handcuffs.

Even with his hands behind his back, the man continued to fight.
Inman and another officer arrived to help and found an odor of pepper
spray that made their eyes start to water.

Sprayed and cuffed, the man still kept trying to fight.

"Don't let your guard down with someone you suspect is under the
influence of meth," he said.

Inman said the price of cocaine has dropped by about half since
methaphetamine arrived in western Illinois.

"It's just like Kmart," he said. "If they've got an abundance of
something, they'll put it on sale."

And like anyone in a competitive business, Inman said cocaine dealers
have become aggressive in their marketing.

"What you're seeing is crack cocaine trying to compete to win these
folks back," he said. "But it's not as good a high, the people in the
culture tell us."

Ferrill said his office and task force agents have information on a
number of people suspected of methamphetamine production. But
building a case takes time.

"It's a never-ending battle," he said.

Prior to the arrival of methamphetamine in Hancock County, said
Ferrill, it was easier for the county to go it alone.

A typical anti-drug operation involved finding someone growing
marijuana on a rural farm.

"We heard about meth labs," he said. "Then all at once, we've got them."

Now it would be hard to go back to life without the task force, he said.

"We've got to work together," he said.