REGIONAL COPS UNITE TO FIGHT NARCOTICS

Task Force Formed To Handle Upswing

The influx of workers helping rebuild the region after Hurricane
Katrina is driving a spike in narcotics activity on the West Bank,
authorities say, prompting four law enforcement agencies to join
forces to deal with the problem.

The New Orleans Police Department, Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's
Office, Gretna Police Department and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's
Office have created a new narcotics task force that will target
specific areas and offenders in each jurisdiction for intensive
surveillance and patrolling, NOPD Deputy Superintendent James Scott said.

The task force, financed through $400,000 from the NOPD's Project
Safe Neighborhoods grant, will consist of about 20 officers taken
from each agency's narcotics, detective and patrol divisions. The
officers will conduct raids and surveillance five nights a week at
several hot spots in each jurisdiction, and also will monitor
specific suspects officials believe to be involved in trafficking
narcotics, Scott said.

Officers will be used for the task force on an overtime basis, and
each officer will be commissioned as a deputy in all of the
participating departments. The commission allows them to make arrests
regardless of jurisdiction.

Scott called the task force a unique advantage for officers because
it would allow them to cross boundaries to pursue those involved in
the drug trade. In the past, police departments did not have the
manpower, budgets or authority to actively assist other departments
in working cases in their home communities.

Scott expects the new cash and focus to allow officers to focus on
the narcotics activity that has accompanied the West Bank's
post-Katrina population growth.

"We realize that we have crime crossing over the parish line,
especially since the storm," said Scott, who added that officers from
NOPD's Fourth District and the Narcotics Division will participate in
the task force. "(Parish lines) are like a geographical boundary that
criminals cross, but we don't cross . . . Any time you dump that many
officers into an area you're going to see an impact."

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson Jr., said his department has
partnered with several different law enforcement agencies since
Hurricane Katrina, and was very intrigued by the level of cooperation
and freedom the task force offers. Although Gretna has seen a
decrease in overall crime since the storm, Lawson said narcotics
activity has been on the rise. About 10 to 15 Gretna police officers
will be involved on a rotating basis with the task force.

"What we're finding that's happening is that the crime element is
moving around," Lawson said. "We are dealing with a lot of
individuals we never dealt with before."

Plaquemines Parish Sheriff I.F. "Jiff" Hingle applauded the joint
effort as a great way for departments to help fight narcotics
activity at its source, adding that he believes many of the drugs
coming into the parish are purchased from one of the other three jurisdictions.

Hingle, who plans to designate three to five officers to the efforts,
said that despite the destruction that large swatches of Plaquemines
Parish suffered, there still have been narcotics problems in more
populated areas and among contractors coming to the city to do work.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee declined to discuss the task force.