COUNTY CHIEF BACKS REPORT ON DRUG UNIT

Police Missed Warning Signs From Detectives

Jefferson County Police Chief William Carcara said he agrees with an
external evaluation that found Metro Narcotics supervisors missed warning
signs that two detectives allegedly were fabricating search warrants and
taking informants' pay.

In an interview yesterday, Carcara said he already has adopted some of the
69 recommendations from the Police Executive Research Forum, based in
Washington. Its review team found that supervisors focused too much on the
extraordinary number of searches and arrests by detectives Mark Watson and
Christie Richardson.

Carcara said the drug unit is adopting a new evaluation process that weighs
the quality of arrests and whether they result in convictions.

He also said the unit's detectives, even those on street units, are being
encouraged to pursue larger cases involving higherlevel dealers.

Carcara said a new voicerecognition system will go online next month. Under
the system, officers will be required to call in on a special phone to
prove they are in court. The system can be modified later to record the
disposition of cases, Carcara said.

The Courier-Journal reported in March that 21 of Watson's 41 cases last
year were dropped because he didn't appear in court but that he nonetheless
received court overtime pay in 10 of the dropped cases.

Last month the newspaper reported that a draft of the review said that it
was notable that Metro Narcotics did not include successful prosecution of
cases as a critical part of job performance. The report also said the unit
had no way to check whether cases were dismissed because officers failed to
appear in court.

Despite the criticism of the drug unit's management, Carcara said he was
pleased with the report.

''We already were scandalized,'' he said. ''I opened the door and let them
look through our dirty laundry. . . . I didn't want any ghosts hanging over
the unit or any thoughts that police were covering up our problems.''

He also said the evaluation ''vindicated our belief that these problems
were isolated to the two detectives under indictment.''

Carcara ordered the $60,000 study after Watson and Richardson, who were
partners in Metro Narcotics, were indicted in March on more than 450 counts
of theft, burglary and perjury, leading to the dismissal of dozens of their
cases and to many convictions being set aside.

The detectives, who resigned from the county department, have pleaded
innocent and will be tried Jan. 14 in Jefferson Circuit Court. Their
lawyers have said the report unfairly assumes the ex-detectives are guilty.

Carcara said no supervisors have been punished or transferred as a result
of the report, or for failing to detect alleged misconduct that spanned
seven years.

''We are talking about 10 sergeants'' over that period ''who were duped,
suckered or didn't do their jobs,'' Carcara said.

Carcara said he has adopted some of the report's recommendations, including
one that requires a commanding officer to witness payments to informants.
The rules previously allowed detectives to observe payouts made by their
partners.

''We never thought we would have a tandem of officers working to beat the
system together,'' Carcara said.

He said broader changes should be left until after January, when city and
county governments will merge.

Metro Narcotics is staffed by both Jefferson County and Louisville police
officers. It's now under the county department's control, but city police
are scheduled to take command in January. Carcara said he doesn't know what
will happen then.

Louisville police Chief Greg Smith could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Carcara said Metro Narcotics detectives probably will strongly resist one
of the report's major recommendations -- that detectives be rotated out of
the unit after a set number of years ''to diminish the opportunities for
disgruntled or criminal-minded officers to do harm to the organization.''

Carcara said jobs in Metro Narcotics are coveted because they offer the
opportunity for unlimited overtime. Detectives contend it can take years to
learn how to do the job right.

It may be more practical to periodically rotate detectives inside the unit
and to make them switch partners, Carcara said.

The Police Executive Research Forum is a nonprofit organization whose
mission is to improve policing. Its team of law-enforcement experts came to
Louisville in June to interview current and former members of Metro
Narcotics, review procedures and observe the unit in action.

Its report said supervisors missed warning signs about Watson and
Richardson, including that their searches always seemed to turn up drug
evidence. Watson was reported to be renowned for going into locations
already searched by experienced officers and quickly finding drugs they
supposedly had overlooked.

Only minor changes were made in the final report, compared with the draft
obtained by the newspaper.

The review team toned down accusations made by some former Metro Narcotics
officers that Watson received ''a very high level of internal protection
from senior county police staff,'' and that some complaints against him
weren't taken seriously because an ''internal network of friends'' in the
department ''attributed the complaints to jealousy.''

The final report says that while there are ''perceptions that allegations
of deceit received little close scrutiny because of established trusting
relationships with persons at higher ranks,'' the few documented complaints
against Watson and Richardson through the years were handled properly.