CITY CAN'T FIGHT DRUG ACTIVITY WITH SMALLER VICE UNIT

Out-of-town drug dealers, mainly from Detroit, cause misery and death
in Huntington, so the Huntington Police Department responds by
re-instituting its drug and vice unit and then slashing its manpower
by a third.

The logic of that escapes us, just as it escapes many people who live
with the city's drug problem. But that's exactly what happened.

In February, the police department re-established its drug and vice
unit to combat problems with drugs and prostitution. The unit had been
disbanded nearly three years earlier following budget cuts. When the
unit was re-established, police spokesmen said the unit would allow
the department to more effectively pursue tips and complaints it
receives from the public.

But last week, police Chief Gene Baumgardner announced two of the
unit's six members, including its commander, had been transferred to
other units within the department in the previous two weeks.

No one in the police department bothered to tell the public what had
happened until four teenagers were shot to death in the city's
Fairfield West neighborhood. Police say they suspect the deaths had
something to do with the influx of crack cocaine dealers from Detroit.

Baumgardner said the transfers will not hinder future drug
investigations. Lt. Ed Wilds, the unit's former commander, will
investigate cold cases that may provide leads about the quadruple
homicide. The other officer was shifted to the department's
administrative unit. He will relay information and statistics to other
units within the department, Baumgardner said.

"Nothing's changed in the drug unit as far as productivity and quality
of work goes," Baumgardner said. "I expect their results to remain the
same or become greater."

Mayor David Felinton says he supports Baumgardner's
decision.

This smells of something else. The police department has its own
version of politics, and the question is whether Wilds or someone else
within the unit did or said something that Baumgardner didn't like. If
that was the case, then people could be shifted around without
downsizing the unit.

Huntington residents want something done about the drug problem in all
its forms, and, with few exceptions, the city's elected officials
aren't responding.

If the police chief and the mayor want to the public to think they are
doing something about the drug and prostitution problems in the city,
gutting the vice unit by a third is the wrong thing to do.

If, however, they want the crack suppliers in Detroit to think they
will have less problem with the city police, then the cuts make sense.

Or, if the chief and the mayor are trying to make an example of
someone they perceive to be a troublemaker, the cuts make sense.

But they don't make sense to the public. The chief and the mayor need
a better explanation, and they need better results from the shrunken
unit if they expect any public support for what's going on in the
police department.