COP VS. COP

Cooperation Is Sadly Lacking At Pittsburgh International

Feuds, if the stakes are within reason, can be fun to watch. That's why we
loved Bryant Gumbel and Willard Scott, the Hatfields and the McCoys, and New
York vs. John Rocker.

The recent feud between the Allegheny County Airport Authority and agents
for the Drug Enforcement Administration isn't in the aforementioned class,
but it rates high on the scale of stupidities that can be produced when
bureaucratic squabbles get out of hand.

Taking a page from the Keystone Kops, county officials woke up one day and
decided that being an equal partner in the drug war that runs through
Pittsburgh International Airport wasn't enough; they wanted to run the show.

In granting itself sovereignty over drug interdiction, the Airport Authority
immediately swam into deep water. Not only was the authority in over its
head, but it couldn't get around the menacing shark fin of an uncooperative
DEA.

The authority responded to DEA petulance by revoking the credentials of its
agents, thus limiting their ability to circulate freely at the airport.
Uniformed police even began shadowing undercover DEA agents, a development
that probably made more than one drug dealer's day. Thoroughly mortified,
District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. at one point suggested the
possibility of arresting Airport Authority Executive Director Kent George
for obstruction of justice.

Mr. George points to cooperation between county police and federal agencies
like the FBI, Secret Service and U.S. marshals as a model of how a
partnership between the DEA and the county police should be structured. This
seems reasonable, but begs the question of why the DEA task force has worked
independently of such coordination since 1997.

Whatever the underlying issues are in this feud, one thing seems clear:
Those who move drugs through Pittsburgh International will be pleased that
cops under various jurisdictions aren't working together to stem the tide.
They must close ranks.