VALLEY NEEDS MORE FBI AGENTS

Suggestions that the FBI will transfer agents from the crime- and
drug-plagued Central Valley have prompted protests from California's two
U.S. senators and valley congressional representatives.

We join these Democrat and Republican legislators in pleading with FBI
Director Louis J. Freeh to assign more -- not fewer -- agents to the
Eastern District of California, the federal judicial district that includes
Kern County.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, as well as Reps. Bill Thomas, Cal
Dooley, Robert Matsui and George Radanovich sent a letter to Freeh last
week pleading for increased federal law enforcement support for
California's Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

The lawmakers were responding to reports in the Sacramento Bee that the FBI
is considering reassigning five agents now supporting the Central Valley
HIDTA, as well as 14 other agents who assist in the region's drug enforcement.

"Such a reassignment would be a wrong move at the wrong time, as the valley
continues to be a major meth production center," they wrote.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency reports more than 90 percent of the
nation's methamphetamine is produced in California, with about half coming
from clandestine labs in the Central Valley. The valley is considered to be
the hub of production for the U.S.

Suggestions to reduce FBI support for the HIDTA comes at a time when local,
state and federal elected officials have set a high priority on
coordinating and intensifying law enforcement efforts. During a January
Central Valley Methamphetamine Summit, participants identified the single
biggest impediment to curbing drug trafficking is the lack of FBI agents
assigned to the Eastern District of California (EDCA.)

With 6 million people, the EDCA is the eighth most populous of the nation's
94 judicial districts, the legislators noted in their letter to Freeh. They
also pointed out that four of the five most crime-ridden metropolitan areas
in California (Modesto, Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento) are in the district.

The district's crime rate is the highest among California's four judicial
districts and 23rd among the nation's 94 districts.

But despite these grim crime statistics, the EDCA, with 127 agents, has the
fewest number of FBI agents among the California districts. This is a ratio
of only one agent for 48,784 residents. The Northern District has 359
agents, or one per 19,891 residents; the Central District has 695, or one
agent per 24,611 residents; and the Southern District has 233 agents, or
one per 12,552 residents. The comparisons nationwide are equally pathetic.

Citing the success of the HIDTA under staffing shortages, they pleaded with
Freeh, "This region needs more FBI agents, not less."

We join in that plea.