BUDGET CUTS THREATEN ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

Iowa Could Lose $16 Million And 135 Police Officers In Proposed Bush Budget

Up to 135 Iowa law officers and nearly 100 anti-drug projects face
elimination under proposed federal budget cuts, state authorities warn.

In addition, a Sioux City law center where more than 18,500 officers from
39 states have been trained over the past six years would be forced to
close under the cuts, which are opposed by both U.S. senators from Iowa.

The training center, hailed as an invaluable tool in the fight against
methamphetamine and other drugs, probably would be a casualty if President
Bush's $12.4 billion federal drug-control budget survives Congress.

Iowa stands to lose about $16 million for law enforcement, crime prevention
and drug-treatment efforts, state officials say.

"Now is not the time to cut this back," Sioux City Police Chief Joe Frisbie
said. "Look at Iowa. Almost all the crime problems we have in these
communities are driven by the drug trade."

Roger Thompson of the River Bend Neighborhood Association in Des Moines
fears the budget proposal will undercut police efforts to keep an eye on
high-crime areas and sniff out trouble before it starts.

Bush's cuts would come at "the very wrong time," Thompson said. "We're
making progress. Now is not the time to eliminate programs that help."

State officials said Iowa's 65 percent cut under Bush's proposal is made
especially threatening by a 27 percent cut over the past three years.

"There will definitely be some hurting going around," said Dale Woolery of
the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy.

Federal money for years has fueled many of the state's major anti-drug
initiatives. Money from programs such as the Community Oriented Policing
Services, Byrne Grants and the COPS-Meth program has helped Iowa
communities add new officers, update technology and create drug task
forces, and it paid for the regional training center in Sioux City.

Those programs would be severely crippled or eliminated in the proposed
budget unless Iowa officials can find alternative sources for cash.

For example, the White House budget proposes to dissolve Justice Assistance
Grants, a program that handed out $629 million in 2005.

Woolery calls the federally financed efforts "the backbone of drug
enforcement in Iowa."

Iowa's U.S. senators said they doubt Bush's budget will pass as proposed,
since support for law enforcement runs deep on both sides of the political
aisle.

"These are wrong choices, wrong priorities," U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said. "I
can assure you I won't be alone" in the fight to soften the cuts.

The Democrat wants to target tax breaks for wealthy Americans to offset the
cuts, which administration officials say are justified by lower crime rates
and a growing federal deficit.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican, said he supports Bush's efforts
to control federal spending but is concerned about the effect on Iowa,
where "I think it is critically important that we not hinder their ability
to protect citizens, especially from the dangers of drugs."

"With the continued growth of meth in Iowa, these proposed cuts could be
especially dangerous," Grassley said.

Both senators, along with local law enforcement authorities across Iowa,
are concerned that Bush plans to move the High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area program from the Office of Drug Control Policy to the Department of
Justice.

The program, which doles out federal money to task forces and special drug
prosecutors in counties deemed high-traffic areas, would be reduced 56
percent nationwide.

The cuts are driven by a national drug enforcement strategy that is focused
on foreign sources in an effort to "cut off the head of the snake," said
Dave Barton, director of the Midwest program, which was formed in 1996 to
cover Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The program so far has operated on the philosophy that America's drug
problem is best dealt with regionally, Barton said. Nine Iowa counties,
including Polk, received about $1.9 million this year.

Officials said about 22 jobs in Iowa are at risk - most of them local
officers and special drug prosecutors - if the Midwest office disappears.

"All we know is what the president introduced in his budget and what the
national strategy says," Barton said. "We have an awful lot of unknown
right now."

Des Moines Police Chief William McCarthy said departments across the state
will feel the pinch when federal money dwindles. About $2.7 million of his
department's $44 million annual budget comes from federal sources.

"We're into some lean times, at least in terms of law enforcement,"
McCarthy said. "We would hope that the political system will take care of us."

He called the high-density trafficking program, which pays for one officer
assigned to a larger Polk County task force, "invaluable in the fight
against methamphetamine."

Sioux City's Frisbie said the training center is already on life support.
Last month, officials bought 10 drug-sniffing German shepherds for 10 Iowa
police departments that couldn't afford them.

Rick Arnold of Sioux City's Neighborhood Network said meth producers often
target rural towns where police are ill-equipped. That's why multiagency
task forces and institutions such as the training center are so important,
he said.

"Meth has just exploded so much here and in the Midwest," he said. "And
they're going to cut the programs that are going to stop it?"

Trimming programs might provide a short-term financial fix, but "we're the
ones who are going to suffer the consequences long-term," Arnold said.

Arnold said he expects crime rates to climb if meth-prevention efforts take
a hit in Iowa.

"A lot of our crime is drug- and alcohol-related," he said. "And that drug
is mostly meth."

Frisbie said the training center will have about nine months to phase out
programs if the federal money dries up.

"I got to tell you, it's alarming," he said.

Greene County Sheriff Tom Heater sends deputies to the training center
every year and has attended classes there. Heater said he can afford a few
thousand dollars each year to train his 18-person department. He depends on
the regional center for the rest.

"For 18 people, they're not going to be getting a lot of training
otherwise," he said.

Frisbie said the cuts, no matter how deep, won't go unnoticed.

"When all of a sudden those drug problems start going up instead of down,
remember this day," he said. "We're finally getting some kind of a handle
on this, and it's going to get erased."

[Sidebar]

Cuts In Iowa

The proposed federal budget would include several cuts in law officers and
anti-drug programs in Iowa:

$5.3 MILLION: Eliminate 25 drug task forces and 52 law enforcement officers
that work in two-thirds of Iowa's counties. Cut 16 offender treatment
programs, including drug courts in Des Moines, Sioux City, the Quad Cities
and Council Bluffs.

$5.2 MILLION: Cut two meth-lab teams in southern Iowa, the Sioux City
Regional Training Center, the Meth Tank Lock Program, and inmate
drug-treatment programs in Polk, Scott and Woodbury counties.

$2.5 MILLION: Eliminate Drug Free Communities Programs for juveniles in 15
Iowa cities.

$1.4 MILLION: Cut forensics training.

How The Cuts Play Out

PROGRAM: Community Oriented Policing Services, responsible for 742 new Iowa
officers since 1995, has been targeted for a deep cut - from $499 million
to $22 million.

DETAILS: A hiring grant pays up to 75 percent of the salary for a new
officer for three years. The local department pitches in the other 25
percent and promises to keep the position filled past the grant period.
Money is also used to update technology, buy equipment and bolster new
community policing initiatives.

ORIGINS: Former President Clinton is credited with starting the program 10
years ago. A conservative think tank's report in 2003 concluded there is
little evidence that the program has advanced community policing movements
and that it has failed to reduce overall crime.

IOWA EXAMPLE : The Greene County Sheriff's Department has been able to
afford two new deputies in the past 10 years. Both were because of a
federal grant.

QUOTE: "It greatly helps reduce your overtime and enables us to put an
extra car out there in the early nighttime hour," said Sheriff Tom Heater,
who oversees five deputies - six once he uses a grant that's already been
approved.

LOCAL EXAMPLE: In Des Moines, 19 new officers have been hired since 1995.
The department will spend $875,000 over four years to station officers at
schools. The school district and police department paid for the "resource
officers" in the past.