COUNTY'S WAR ON METH GETS BOOST

Federal Grant Will Help Pay For New High-Tech Tools

Jefferson County drug investigators will get $250,000 in federal money to buy
high-tech communications equipment that authorities hope will help the county's
war on methamphetamine.

The nonrenewable grant is part of about $1.5 million in U.S. Department of
Justice grants directed to St. Louis area law enforcement, as specified by an
appropriations bill President George W. Bush signed into law in February.

Jefferson County's grant must be used for training, equipment and other
one-time expenses that will help curb production of methamphetamine.

Meth is a powerful and highly addictive illegal drug that often is made by
users in small batches by using easy-to-obtain and often volatile chemicals.
Use and production of the drug has exploded across Missouri, but especially in
Jefferson County.

The county is third only to southwest Missouri's Jasper County and nearby
Franklin County in the number of drug labs, ingredient caches and meth-related
dump sites discovered by police in 2002, according to statewide crime
statistics released in March. Jefferson County had 148 meth raids and seizures
last year, up from 67 in 2001. But the county is on pace to top last year's
record. Cpl. Don Mestemacher, head of the Jefferson County drug task force,
said his force was responsible for 107 raids and seizures so far this year.

Jefferson County Sheriff Oliver "Glenn" Boyer said the grant would be used to
install mobile data terminals in at least 10 cars used by drug investigators.

The terminals would allow narcotics investigators to communicate written
messages, file warrants and reports and access law-enforcement databases - all
from inside a squad car.

Boyer said the department already had field-tested the terminals, and the gear
would be "groundbreaking for the department."

Because of Jefferson County's hilly terrain, sheriff's deputies can drive deep
into a valley and find that their radios no longer work. Meth investigators,
who often handle surveillance work and other investigations in these same
remote areas of the county, risk having communications with dispatchers,
superiors and police back-up cut off every time they drive down a hilly stretch
of road.

More than just improving communications, Boyer said the terminals "would
effectively make each patrol car its own zone office." He said that meant
officers could spend more time on the street trying to fight crime and less
time filling out paperwork in the office.

The federal grant was part of the 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which also
supported technology upgrades for law enforcement in St. Louis and St. Louis
County.

The St. Louis County Police Department will receive $700,000 for the
installation of video cameras in more than half of the county's patrol fleet.
The high-tech system is intended to improve police officers' safety and
accountability. Police in the city will receive a $390,000 federal grant toward
the building of a DNA crime laboratory, scheduled for ground-breaking in
September.

Boyer praised Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, D-south St. Louis County, for helping
to secure the law-enforcement grants.

In a press release announcing the grants, Gephardt said that the federal
government needed to play a bigger role in aiding local law enforcement.

"With dwindling budgets for these departments, federal support has become a
critical public-safety component," Gephardt said.