NARCOTICS AGENTS: HIGH RISKS, LOW PAY

Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Agent Geoff Still hunts deer in the fall
and turkey in the spring. But it's not for sport, it's to put meat on the
table for his wife and two children.

Still's family counts on him to harvest enough game during hunting season
to freeze for meals year-round. The lion's share of his $25,500 salary goes
for household expenses, leaving $100 a month for groceries and gas.

His job fighting illicit drugs pays so little that Still, an agent for two
years with eight years' law enforcement experience, said he has considered
quitting for a bigger salary elsewhere.

State Rep. John Reeves, chairman of the House Committee on Fees and
Salaries of Public Officers, wants to stem agents' resignations by awarding
them hazardous duty pay.

"Illegal drugs are at the root of most of our crimes; yet after taxes, some
agents qualify for food stamps," Reeves, R-Jackson, said. "They don't earn
enough to justify putting themselves at risk of getting killed by every
fool and thug selling drugs."

Under Reeves' proposal, an agent earning an entry-level salary of $23,976,
for example, would get $29,970 with a 25 percent hazardous duty pay
premium, plus any accrued overtime.

Still's still on the MBN payroll, but in the last year, 41 of the bureau's
178 agents were wooed away by higher salaries at federal and local law
enforcement agencies. Budget cuts now threaten some of the remaining
agents, who may end up being laid off.

"I'm not ashamed to say I'm also getting government assistance," Still
said. "There's no way on my salary I can afford three or four gallons of
milk each week. It puts a lot of pressure on you at home. I love the work,
but I don't know how I'll put my kids through college."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration pays undercover agents hazardous
duty pay, as does the U.S. military when it sends soldiers and sailors into
areas of conflict, said MBN director Don Strange, a retired chief of
intelligence for the DEA.

"We are paying thousands of dollars to recruit and train MBN agents, but we
don't pay them enough to support their families," Strange said. "The
state's paying the extra money anyway when I have to replace people."

New Albany police officer Chris Glasson left his $25,500 MBN agent position
earlier this year to take a job for a few hundred dollars more. Glasson
spent two years with the MBN and has a total of five years' law enforcement
experience.

"I know a lot of people who left the bureau for higher salaries," said
Glasson, a newlywed, who says he makes close to what he earned at the MBN.
"I like working drugs, but the state is going to have to come up with
better money for agents to make them stay."

Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, a Joint Legislative Budget Committee
member, said some state agencies, like the Bureau of Narcotics, should be
considered for pay raises. "There are absolutely some areas of the state
where we're going to have to make salary adjustments," he said. "I think
it's imperative that we compensate them."

Choctaw County Sheriff Dan McCann says his five deputies have all they can
do responding to daily service calls let alone start doing the work of
specially trained state drug agents.

"The state needs to get the agents some money, because they do a good job,"
McCann said. "The agents don't work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs. We need them. It
takes a lot of people to fight drug traffickers."

The loss of agents has been a setback for McCann, who says Choctaw County
doesn't have the extra manpower, money or surveillance equipment to
properly police drug activity.

"We've noticed an increase in complaints about meth," McCann said. "It's a
real small county and people see a lot of what goes on."

The MBN's workload has increased, despite fewer employees to do the job, a
cutback in cell phones and taking 45 cars away from undercover agents.
Agent Brian Ely says he's on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week in an
area of enforcement covering three counties.

"It's a struggle living paycheck to paycheck," said Ely, who is married
with three kids. "You can forget the extras, but when you have a good day
and take a major violator off the street, you'd almost do this for free."