COMBAT REAL CRIME

Since January, Sgt. Jim Henderson, vice president of
the Alabama Narcotics Officers Association, has protested the federal
government cuts to his budget on the editorial pages of many Alabama
newspapers. He claimed the cuts would make drug task forces
ineffective. When have they ever been effective? Every year the number
of drug arrests and the amount of drugs seized rises.

If the tactics employed by Henderson and other drug warriors were
working, then shouldn't those numbers be going down? Should they be
rewarded for repeated failure with more cash? Only in government does
something as asinine as rewarding failure happen. In the private
sector, they would be unemployed.

Drug task forces are equivalent to people who abuse the welfare
system. Instead of doing real police work on serious crimes like
murder, rape, child sex assault, robbery and vehicle theft, they focus
on rounding up low-level, non-violent drug users because it's easy.
And they get a government welfare check for doing so.

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center reports that crime
clearance rates for 2005 were 19 percent. The drug warrior welfare
cuts should be looked upon as a good thing. Perhaps now police will
get to work on solving real crimes.

Loretta Nall

Alexander City