SENATE APPROVES MELTON TO RUN NARCOTICS BUREAU

The Senate on Friday confirmed the appointment of Frank Melton as director
of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended confirmation Thursday.

Melton, 52, former chief executive officer of WLBT-Channel 3 in Jackson,
was appointed to the job by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove on Dec. 4.

Melton has said he would not accept his $60,000 a year job. He made
headlines in recent weeks by suiting up with MBN officers and going on drug
raids around the state.

On the opening day of the 2003 legislative session, Melton wore street gear
to help officers make traffic stops near the Capitol.

With a MBN helicopter hovering overhead, the stops were made as
legislators, lobbyists and others were arriving in Jackson. In 2000, the
U.S. Supreme Court said random traffic stops could not be used to catch
drug criminals. Attorney General Mike Moore said last week that he wanted
to talk to Melton.

"It's going to be a particular challenge on our part to make sure that we
keep Frank between the lines of the law," Moore said in January.

Melton said that since he started at MBN, officers have conducted searches
on long-distance buses and on Amtrak trains.

He said profiling is wrong and he resents people thinking that most drug
peddling happens in black neighborhoods.

"The guy who's peddling methamphetamines, I can tell you the profile on
him. He has a Confederate flag on his truck and one of these (NASCAR) race
car things," Melton told reporters last month.