NARCOTICS UNIT

Damage Done, Repair Is Next Aim

The scathing report by the PEER Committee about problems in the Mississippi
Bureau of Narcotics, unfortunately, is a day late and several dollars short.

The legislative watchdog Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review
Committee blasted the bureau's director for using funds to fatten
middle-management salaries instead of hiring agents.

However, that director, Tom Blaine, resigned in January.

His successor, Don Strange, appointed March 1, has sought to undo the
damage from the get-go -- months before this report came.

PEER's findings concerning the waste of funds meant to improve Mississippi
drug enforcement are shocking.

Instead of taking the $25.3 million the Legislature appropriated to hire
112 new agents, which was expected to dramatically increase drug
enforcement cases, money was spent on fattened salaries and name-only
promotions.

Agents resigned due to poor morale, arrests dropped by nearly half and new
criminal cases fell as well. So the result of taxpayer money funneled into
the department was less results and more waste.

Since Strange was appointed, however, the bureau has begun reevaluating
management positions, new agents have been hired and veterans lured back
into service. But a more important change may determine the future.

The bureau has always had an arm's length relationship with other state and
local law enforcement agencies. The lack of cooperation has hampered drug
enforcement and fostered investigative duplication and ill-will.

If Strange can improve performance, boost the ranks and increase
interagency cooperation, the embarrassments revealed by PEER will be only a
grim reminder of what was. And the taxpayers will be much better served.