POLICE AGENCY TEAMWORK LEADS TO AREA DRUG LABS

Criminals scatter like rats when local law-enforcement officers
arrive at a crime scene. That seems to be what happened after High
Point police recently broke up illegal drug labs producing
methamphetamine. It appears the network of lab operators fled High
Point and scattered to the suburbs of Thomasville and Trinity.

On Tuesday, those criminals got their due, too. Members of the
Randolph County Sheriff's Office, Thomasville Police Department and
State Bureau of Investigation raided illegal drug labs in Trinity and
Thomasville. Three people were charged with manufacturing
methamphetamine. Two other people were being sought as of Wednesday.

High Point law-enforcement authorities said the Trinity and
Thomasville labs were connected to the High Point lab that was broken
up earlier this month. Details of the relationship were not
available, but the situation provides important lessons for area
law-enforcement agencies and the public.

It doesn't matter where you live. Whether it's a city, small town or
rural setting, residents should maintain an awareness of what is
going on in their communities.

That's not to say, however, that residents should become surveillance
experts or form vigilante groups. Makers of methamphetamine aren't
your All-American kids down the street. They are criminals, and they
likely are armed.

Area residents never should try to confront suspected members of drug
operations. That's a job for trained law officers. But area residents
can let the local law-enforcement agency know when they suspect
illegal drug activity is going on in their neighborhoods.

As for area law-enforcement agencies, the lesson is one of
cooperation. On Tuesday, local agencies worked together with the SBI
in carrying out the actual raids. But the groundwork was laid earlier
through clear lines of communication among the various agencies
involved.

Such communication must continue. When authorities receive
information about possible criminal activity in other jurisdictions,
they must share that information with the appropriate authorities in
those areas. Only that type of cooperation among law-enforcement
officers will best serve the public they protect.