OLDHAM GETS DRUG DETECTION KIT

Federal Grant Buys Cameras, Fiber-optic Scope, Other Gear

Oldham County police are using $55,000 worth of new equipment designed to
detect drugs and other contraband.

The department was one of only 12 across the nation to receive a kit that
includes search mirrors, infrared cameras, steel probes, a fiber-optic
scope and video equipment paid for by a federal grant.

The kit was developed by the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center, a
division of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which
supplied the grant.

"This will be a huge supplement to our drug canines," said Sgt. Greg
Collett, a detective in the Oldham department. "It will be a means to
verify our suspicions."

Larger police departments, including Louisville and Jefferson County
police, already have some of the equipment. But for Oldham County, a
department with 28 sworn officers, the grant offers an opportunity it
wouldn't ordinarily have.

"What we're looking at is equipment we would never be able to afford if we
were to put it together piecemeal," Collett said. For example, he said the
fiber-optic scope alone would cost about $12,750.

The equipment may help officers expedite investigations when drug activity
is suspected, Collett said.

It may also make investigations easier. For example, the fiber-optic scope
can snake through tight spots and uncover contraband.

Collett said some drugs are smuggled in gas tanks, tires or hidden
compartments in the bodies of cars. Until now, the department would have to
dismantle a car to search it for drugs, but the new equipment will simplify
the process while keeping vehicles intact.

Other equipment will allow officers to search under and on top of cars or
tractor-trailers.

And some equipment can be used for drug searches in homes. The infrared
camera, for example, is mounted atop a pole that's extendible up to 15
feet, so officers can peer into the space above a dropped ceiling.

"That would be a whole lot simpler than trying to fit somebody up into an
attic," Collett said.

The equipment has been tested by the Army and is used in border patrols,
but as a condition of the grant, Oldham County police must report
periodically to the government about how it's working and whether it needs
to be modified.

The department has already applied for more equipment to add to the kit,
including surveillance equipment using thermal imaging and night vision.
Oldham got the original grant, in part, because it participated in a
training session on the equipment last April in Orlando. The county was
also a good candidate because it has river, rail and interstate traffic
running through it, so drug activity is considered a given, Collett said.

"Nowadays, any interstate is considered a drug-trafficking route," he said,
adding that one officer recently uncovered eight pounds of marijuana during
a routine traffic stop.

The department plans to share the equipment with LaGrange police and the
Oldham County Sheriff's Department. "It's not who gets it, as long as we
can get (drugs) off the streets," Collett said. "That's what it's all about."