MADISON COUNTY DRUG DATA DWARF ST. CLAIR'S

Belleville - Although Madison and St. Clair counties have nearly identical
populations, police in Madison County reported twice the number of
drug-related arrests last year as their colleagues in St. Clair County.

The figures - about 1,200 drug arrests in St. Clair County compared with
nearly 2,400 in Madison County - were released last week by Illinois State
Police in its annual crime report.

Police and prosecutors were shocked.

I'm really surprised at that huge disparity, said St. Clair County State's
Attorney Robert B. Haida, who vowed to look into the matter. The figures
are really too complex for an easy explanation. I'm going to get together
with law enforcement agencies and find out what's happening.

Madison County State's Attorney William Haine credited vigorous police work
and well-trained departments in Madison County, but wasn't certain what led
to the discrepancy.

Haida and other officials suggested the difference could be a problem in
the way drug arrests are reported to State Police by local departments,
rather than a difference in the way police departments tackle drug crimes
in each county.

Wide-ranging disparities between counties in other categories, such as
crimes reported against children and domestic crimes, suggest a reporting
problem could exist.

Both prosecutors were reached in Chicago, where they were attending a
state's attorney conference and hadn't had a chance to review the figures.

St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl Justus was similarly perplexed, but said
that Haine's office issues many more arrest warrants than Haida's office.

(Haida's) office tends not to issue a warrant until you get (drug) test
results back from the lab, Justus said. But he wasn't sure that could
account for the discrepancy and declined to discuss the warrant policy further.

Justus said officers from city police forces or the FBI assigned to his
department's drug task force have been needed elsewhere recently, putting a
strain on the effort to fight drug crimes.

Each police department sends an annual accounting of all types of crime to
State Police. The agency then issues an annual report that lists every
county in the state.

This year showed slight increases in some serious crimes, including murder,
for both St. Clair and Madison counties.

Old reports show the disparity between the counties isn't new, although the
margin is at its widest since 1999, when State Police first included
drug-related arrests in its crime reports. Madison County reported about
2,100 drug arrests in 1999 and 2000, compared with about 1,200 for both
years in St. Clair County.

Madison County has a population of about 259,000, just slightly more than
St. Clair County's 256,000 people and the two are considered similar
demographically.

Madison County's drug arrest rate, which compares the number of drug
arrests with the county population, is near the state average, while St.
Clair's is about half of the state average.

Without prior knowledge of the disparity, officials were left giving their
best guesses as to what could account for the difference.

In addition to crediting police work, Haine suggested that the interstate
highways that converge in Madison County could account for more arrests of
mules, a police term for drug traffickers who transport drugs across the
country.

Madison County Sheriff Bob Churchich believed the county's focus on the
drug methamphetamine boosted its numbers. He said the department has
aggressively pursued thefts from farm fields of anhydrous ammonia, used to
make the drug.