ROGERS TO OFFER $30,000 FOR DRUG EQUIPMENT

ROGERS -- Rogers Police Chief Tim Keck said the city will offer about
$30,000 to the state for drug-fighting equipment left over from the
now-defunct 19th Judicial District Drug Task Force in an effort to
resolve a year-long dispute.

The quarrel is over about $100,000 worth of gear that the state said
Rogers police should have returned after the Rogers-based drug task
force disbanded in 2001.

State Drug Director Bill Hardin has been asking Keck to turn over the
gear -- surveillance cameras, weapons and other items -- for more than
a year.

Once a task force disbands, Hardin said, federal regulations dictate
that the equipment goes back to the state. Hardin supervises
operations of drug task forces in the state as well as the
distribution of U.S. Justice Department grants to fund the groups.

Keck didn't think it was fair for Rogers to give up the equipment
because some of it was purchased with city money and grant funds.
Also, city money has been used to upgrade some of the gear, he said.

The Arkansas Attorney General's Office has said that it would sue
Rogers to settle the dispute.

Keck will offer to pay about $30,000 for four or five critical items,
including night vision equipment, body wires and radios. Rogers police
are using those items in undercover drug cases, and losing them would
jeopardize the investigations, Keck said.

"If the state agrees to the offer, we'll return everything else and
reserve the fight," Keck said.

State auditors thought to have visited Rogers on Monday to inventory
the equipment postponed the visit because an offer is being finalized,
Keck said.

"I'm confident we'll work this out," Keck said. "Nobody wants this
thing to go to court. No one wants to spend taxpayer money on
litigation."

Keck will ask the City Council and City Attorney Ben Lipscomb to
approve the offer. Then it will be presented to Hardin and the
attorney general's office.

The task force disbanded in March 2001 after Rogers police didn't
resubmit an annual grant application.

Keck made the decision after the Benton County sheriff's office and
the Bentonville Police Department withdrew their officers from the
task force, which operated in Benton and Carroll counties.

Keck reassigned the Rogers Police Department's three task force
officers to work drug cases inside the city limits.