POLICE TRAIN TO DEAL WITH CHEM CRIMES

MERIDIAN - To the team, the mobile home looked like the kind of place where
something bad could happen.

Officials said it had served as a methamphetamine lab. Worse, they said
there was a small child alone inside.

Immediately, two men wearing chemical-proof plastic suits and air tanks
charged inside. Their mission? To secure the building and rescue the child,
all without causing harm to themselves.

At least, that's what they would have done had the situation been real.

On Friday, six Mississippi police officers and 16 other officers from four
more states participated in drills to earn certification in the Clandestine
Laboratory and Weapons of Mass Destruction Safety Certification Course at
the Meridian Naval Air Station.

The course, held at the base's Regional Counterdrug Training Academy, is
the first of its kind in the nation in which elements of drug law
enforcement investigation are combined with HAZMAT training.

Officials said the training will help local law enforcement have more
knowledge in situations that involve handling chemicals as they see more
and more meth labs in the South.

"We have to train them how to do this safely," said Mick Mollica, a
consultant and leader of the one-week, 50-hour training course. Mollica, a
narcotics officer in California for more than 30 years, helped develop the
course curriculum.

"After Sept. 11, we wanted to develop a class that could train local
officers to recognize and handle certain chemicals, say in a meth bust,"
Mollica said. "But at the same time, we wanted to show them how to
recognize a possible weapons of mass destruction situation as well, so they
could be a first response official and know what substances are and who to
call in for help."

Staff Sgt. Cliff Moore and Patrick Mize of the Philadelphia Police
Department agreed they are better off after taking the course.

"We were getting calls for meth labs and I was going in there to
investigate and I didn't know what I was doing," Moore said. "I was picking
up things, chemicals, that I shouldn't have been."

Mize saw the course as an advanced chemistry class.

"We know now what happens when certain chemicals mix, and what can
explode," he said. "We learned how toxic some of the things used in making
meth can be."

In 2002, Mississippi recorded 280 methamphetamine labs - more than
Louisiana (60) and Alabama (198) combined, according to the National
Clandestine Laboratory Database.

"It's a huge problem, especially in the South," said Clay Anderson, an
investigator from the Memphis area who monitored the safety of Friday's
courses.

Anderson said in 1998, Tennessee reported two meth labs statewide. By 2002,
there were 437.

The easy production of the drug, as well as the high prices it can bring
in, contribute to its popularity, he said.

"It spreads like wildfire," Anderson said. "And you have to have people who
know what they're doing to help combat the problem."

"Now, when the officers walk into a certain situation, they will be looking
at things a different way," said Orrin Fuelling, director of training at
the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy, which oversees Mississippi,
Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia. "They are our protection on the
most local level, and they need the same knowledge as those people at the top."

A $993,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice paid for the officers'
meals, lodging and training for the anti-terrorism course.

The curriculum included lectures on toxicology, physical and chemical
hazards, surveillance, air monitoring, chemical sampling and safety. The
certification must be updated with another eight-hour course every year.