MANPOWER CRITICAL IN FIGHTING DRUGS

Drug Arrests Up, But Uphill Battle Lies Ahead For Thin Police Force

HUNTINGTON -- The number of drug-related arrests has increased
dramatically, but so has the realization that an uphill battle lies
ahead for local police trying to win a war with out-of-town drug dealers.

The shooting deaths of four area teens one year ago today sparked
parallel police initiatives -- one to find the killers and another to
break the back of the drug trafficking that most believe was the root
cause of the community tragedy. ADVERTISEMENT

One year later, officers say they have made progress. But obstacles
remain, including the need for more manpower and a prosecution and
sentencing system that gets offenders off the streets.

Steven Ferguson lives just blocks away from where the teens were
killed last year. He said he appreciates the extra police work, but
he realizes the battle is overwhelming.

"It looks like as soon as they arrest them, they are out on bond," he
said. "It's a problem, and they don't seem to be getting a hand on
it, from the way I look at it. It just pops up all over."

Ferguson said there does not seem to be enough police coverage to
tackle the problem.

"I mean, they arrest three, and they have five more that show up," he
said. "They are trying to do what they can, but it's still outgrowing
them. The problem is bigger than the manpower they have."

In 2005, Cabell County police departments filed 455 drug-related
felony cases in magistrate court, according to magistrate court
records reviewed by The Herald-Dispatch. That's up from 307 in 2004.

Already this year, police have filed another 271 felony drug-related cases.

Despite the increase in arrests, Cabell County Sheriff's Lt. Eddie
Blake and other officers say the drug trafficking continues.

"When we take a drug dealer off the street, there are two or three
more ready to step in and take their place," he said. "Until we can
have concentrated efforts on these drug areas, we are going to
continue to have problems."

How much manpower?

Law enforcement officers say they need more manpower, but there is no
simple formula to assess how many officers a community needs.

According to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Report, cities
Huntington's size average about 1.8 sworn officers and 2.3 total
employees per 1,000 residents.

The Huntington Police Department reports it has 88 sworn officers and
six civilians. That includes the chief, two officers currently on
military service and six officers assigned to multiple drug units.
That would put Huntington just below the national average on sworn
officers, but well below the average on total employees.

Using the most recent population estimates, Huntington has 1.76 sworn
officers and 1.88 total employees per 1,000. During major cutbacks in
2002, much of the department's support staff was eliminated, and
today sworn officers handle some of those duties. Huntington would
need 114 total employees to reach the national average.

But experts acknowledge that population figures can be tricky,
because they don't account for the daily influx of people from
surrounding communities and suburbs. Huntington, for example, gains
about 25,000 people every day, according to U.S. Census figures.
Charleston, which is only slightly larger than Huntington in
population and also has huge daily influx, has more than 180 total
police employees.

When the police and sheriff's departments began separate drug units
last spring, they did it by reallocating manpower and no extra
officers were hired.

Jim Scheidler, chief deputy of the Cabell County Sheriff's
Department, said he knew that his force had to be reorganized last
year to address the crack cocaine problem, but there is little more he can do.

"I can only speak for my agency, but I'm to the point where I can't
take from anywhere else and still be effective in the entire scope of
law enforcement," he said. "With the people we have on road patrol,
we barely cover the geographical miles per zone we have to cover per shift."

Combs praised his boss, Huntington Police Chief Arthur E. "Gene"
Baumgardner, by saying he redeployed officers to man the drug unit.

Now, Combs said, the manpower is needed.

"I don't know how our books are, and I don't know what we can and
can't afford, but I know one thing," Combs said. "We can't afford to
lose this battle because if we do, this city is sunk if crack dealers
take over."

Intelligence needs

Additional patrols are critical to providing intelligence for drug
investigators, according to Joe Ciccarelli, the state's supervisory
senior resident agent for the FBI.

Ciccarelli said he believes Huntington's decision to layoff 16
officers in 2002 had a negative effect and allowed drug traffickers
to become more brazen in their attempts to sell. It also affected the
FBI's Huntington Violent Crimes Drug Task Force.

"You've got to have more people on the street," he said. "An
investigative task force can't survive without having interaction
with guys out on the street every day."

Ciccarelli and FBI Special Agent Matt Hoke said cutbacks on the
bicycle patrol was a blow.

"The drug dealers especially didn't like the bike unit," Hoke said.
"(Bicycle patrols) could be onto them in the snap of a finger,
because they ride around in the alleys and between houses."

Huntington Lt. Hank Dial said the unit was cut as result of layoffs,
but he said a federal grant allowed officers to start pedaling again
on a part-time basis at least one year ago.

Dial said the unit normally takes the winter months off, and then
reactivates for the summer and fall.

That's welcome news to Beatrice Ferguson, who said Huntington needs
more street-level law enforcement.

"We just need more patrolmen because we are having so many
out-of-town people coming in," she said. "I've been here for years,
and most of the younger people that I see now I don't even know."

Cooperation between agencies

Coordinating city, county, state and federal efforts is also critical.

Currently, the local drug offensive consists of three units with each
working its own cases.

One unit consists of the FBI and local designees. Another consists of
the Huntington Police Department and a West Virginia State trooper,
while the third group is two deputies from the Cabell County
Sheriff's Department. Each of the groups say they share information
when it is requested.

Last summer, the three groups combined their forces under one mission
dubbed "Operation Blitz."

The effort kicked off with a joint press conference about two weeks
after gunmen killed the four teenagers. Then, the groups fanned
across Cabell County on multiple raids between August and October
arresting at least 65 people. Many of the drug officers said that
same effort exists today, even though each group is working its own caseload.

Departments recently began seeking assistance from the U.S. Marshals
Service Fugitive Task Force. That group has been active in the region
for a while, but just recently garnered enough funding to accept the
assignment of two county sheriff's deputies full time.

Blake is one of the two deputies who joined the task force March 1.
The other deputy is assigned out of Kanawha County.

Since their assignment, the fugitive task force has been responsible
for many local arrests. That includes the capture of two men wanted
for two drive-by shootings Jan. 7 along Fairfax Drive and 12th Avenue
in Huntington. The group also nabbed two jail escapees from the
state's Northern Panhandle in Cabell County and traveled to Detroit
to bring back three fugitives.

Blake said the partnership is helping his department execute many
arrests warrants that had been lying dormant.

"Before, nobody was actually spending 100 percent of their time on
warrants," he said.

Brad Sellers, the supervisory deputy for the U.S. Marshals Service
Fugitive Task Force, said his members don't do drug investigations,
but help find fugitives who travel in and out of the area.

"By the time I think local law enforcement really identifies who they
are, they have left the area again," Sellers said. "That's where it
is beneficial to have the task force to be able to reach out and get
them in another jurisdiction."

Prosecution manpower

Once an arrest is made, the burden shifts to the prosecutor's office
to move the case through the court system.

And, again, manpower is an issue, according to Cabell County
Prosecutor Chris Chiles and other law enforcement officials.

Chiles said he applauds the efforts of the leaders in law enforcement
that realigned their forces to form the drug units. He also
acknowledged rearranging some job descriptions within his office to
cope with the influx of drug-related felony cases.

"I'm not sure to say that any one issue is the biggest issue, but it
is a significant issue," he said.

Cabell County Sgt. Mike Clark praised officials working in magistrate
court and within the prosecutor's office, but he said manpower issues
in both areas of the judicial system can force plea bargains to occur.

"We have to let a lot of them plead to misdemeanors," he said. "If
you didn't, the circuit courts would have to run 24/7 to have all the
trials on them."

Chiles said he believes plea bargains and dismissals will become less
frequent in magistrate court with the coming of the drug units. He
said formation of the units has not only increased the quantity of
arrests, but it has improved the quality of the drug cases.

Before the drug units, Chiles said it would be uniform officers doing
many of the drug arrests. That would often affect the quality of the
arrest because the uniformed officer does not have the same amount of
time to investigate the case as he goes from police call to police call.

Chiles said the drug units, on the other hand, have the ability to
conduct drug buys and complete more thorough investigations.

"It makes it easier for my office, with its limited resources, to do
its job," he said.

Chiles estimates his office is already up to 230 circuit court
indictments this year, and many of those have drug connections. He
said he anticipates a few of those defendants will plead guilty,
while the other cases will go to trial.