CITY WEIGHS BEEFING UP METRO NARCOTICS UNIT

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday will consider transferring more
than $100,000 to the police department to hire 13 new officers during
the final months of this fiscal year.

The budget amendments, which spring from recommendations of a city
crime task force, would send five new officers to the city-county
Metro Narcotics Unit.

The task force recommended that unit receive an almost $1 million
total boost in personnel and resources. It was the group's main
proposal for attacking a drug problem city and county law enforcement
officials told task force members was the biggest influence on the
area's crime.

But statistics obtained from the District Attorney General's Office in
Jackson show that the 12-officer unit's individual indictments have
waned since 2003, when a tornado's tear through east and downtown
Jackson touched off a spike in crime.

The unit's drug indictments in Madison County Circuit Court fell
steadily from 133 in fiscal year 2001-2002 to 42 in fiscal year
2005-2006, according to the statistics. Indictments rose to 76 during
fiscal year 2006-2007.

In Tennessee government, the fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on
June 30 of the following calendar year.

Police credit the lower indictment totals to different bookkeeping,
the larger amount of time needed to build meaningful drug cases, and
an increased concentration on obtaining federal indictments that can
mete out lengthier sentences for dealers and distributors.

"That certainly does not represent all of the work," Jackson Police
Chief Rick Staples said. "They may be investigating a case a couple of
years before it materializes into an indictment."

According to police records, the unit had 85 indictments during
calendar year 2006. In 2007, the unit produced 103 indictments and an
additional 34 federal indictments.

More indictment statistics were not available last week, police and
federal officials said. Police records show the unit took 31 cases to
federal court in 2007 and 13 in 2006.

The drug unit has made at least 200 arrests during each year since
2001 with the exception of 2003, the year of the tornado.

The unit made 1,000 arrests in 2005, many in connection to an upswing
in the theft and illegal sale of prescription drugs, said Jackson
Police Lt. Barry Michael, the unit's commander.

He said that year's arrests and a time-consuming process of verifying
and tracing forged prescriptions could be to blame for the lowered
number of indictments recorded in fiscal year 2005-2006.

The unit arrested 416 in 2007 and 275 in 2006.

Of all its arrests, many result in lower-level charges and fines
worked out in lower courts such as General Sessions and City Court,
Michael said.