DENTON COUNTY DRUG TASK FORCE LOSES FEDERAL FUNDING

Unit likely to close; official says it doesn't serve multiple counties

DENTON - The North Central Texas Narcotics Task Force is likely to end June
30, cut because of noncompliance with federal grant rules, a governor's
spokesman said.

Gene Acuna, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, said five of Texas' 46
multicounty task forces - including the North Central unit - lost federal
funding this week because they do not serve multiple counties. The
governor's office controls the federal funds.

"It comes down to compliance issues," Mr. Acuna said. "These task forces are
supposed to be multijurisdictional."

Denton County sheriff's spokesman Kevin Patton said authorities are trying
to keep the task force in place.

"We're talking to all lawmakers in our district, asking for help in saving
the task force," he said.

Denton County Sheriff Weldon Lucas, who is project director for the task
force, said the unit's demise would help criminals.

"This is not going to help Denton County," Sheriff Lucas said. "Every dope
dealer in the world will know we don't have that task force anymore."

The task force includes officers from Sheriff Lucas' office, Highland Park
police, Grayson County and a prosecutor from the Denton County district
attorney's office, the sheriff said. Wise County had been part of the task
force but opted out, officials said.

Grayson County Sheriff's Maj. Tom Raines said his county is part of the task
force, though the sheriff does not have an officer attached to it.

Mr. Acuna said he did not believe Grayson County was part of the task force.

Wise County District Attorney Jana Jones said she and the Wise County
sheriff and the police chiefs of Decatur and Bridgeport decided their
taxpayers' needs were not being met by having three officers on the task
force.

Wise County officers were frustrated because they worked in Denton County
but the Denton County officers would not work in Wise County, she said.

She said she also was frustrated because the task force used its funds to
pay for a Denton County special prosecutor for their narcotics cases but
Wise County had no help with narcotics prosecution.

"We didn't feel like our needs were being met," Ms. Jones said.

Mr. Patton said he has gone to several Wise County drug busts and believes
the task force has worked many cases with the Wise County officers. Between
June 1, 2002 and May 31, the task force made 69 arrests in Wise County and
filed 53 cases, figures show.

Mr. Patton said he believed that Ms. Jones was offered help from the task
force prosecutor and refused it.

The federal grant paid the salaries for the task force officers and other
expenses. The request for next year's budget, which would have gone into
effect July 1, was for $701,344.

Sheriff Lucas said the grant paid 75 percent of the salaries of seven of his
deputies on the task force. His office paid the other 25 percent and the
salary of one deputy to satisfy "in kind" fund-matching requirements, he
said.

He blamed the fund cut on a general belt-tightening in state and federal
funding. He said he intended to do his best to keep the officers employed.

"I'm going to absorb them somehow," Sheriff Lucas said.

In the first nine months of this budget year, task force members made 203
arrests and filed 342 cases. About $4.6 million in drug seizures were made.

Others that lost funding are the Galveston County Narcotics Task Force, the
25th Judicial Narcotics Task Force in Guadalupe County, the South Texas
Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force in Kleberg County and the
Tri-County Narcotics Task Force, based in San Patricio County.

This story also appears in the Denton Record-Chronicle.