STATE SAYS HARTFORD POLICE OWES IT ALMOST $800,000

HARTFORD, July 11 -- Painting a picture of the Hartford police as a
department in administrative disarray, Connecticut's chief state's attorney
complained today that the force had failed since early last year to hand
over about $775,000 in drug money and other criminal assets seized by its
officers. State law requires all municipal police departments to send money
taken from individuals they arrest to the state court system, which
generally gives back 70 percent of drug-related money as an incentive.
Police departments use the cash to upgrade equipment and pay for training.

But mismanagement by the Hartford Police Department -- which was sharply
criticized as disorganized in an independent study last fall -- is costing
the force about $260,000, said State's Attorney John M. Bailey.

"If you were getting 70 percent of the money back, wouldn't you hand it
over?" Mr. Bailey asked today, his face bearing a half-smile of
incredulity. "This is a great deal of money. It has to be accounted for."

Police officials would not discuss the late payments with a reporter today,
saying no one was available to comment until the department's spokesman, Sgt.
Neil Dryfe, returned from vacation on July 17.

Hartford's city manager, Saundra Kee Borges, said the Police Department was
disputing the amount of drug-related forfeitures it must turn over to the
state. Of the $775,000 total, Mr. Bailey contends that $375,000 is
drug-related money owed by the department, but the police believe the
amount is about $200,000, Ms. Borges said.

The last time the Hartford police turned over a batch of confiscated money
was April 1999, when it gave the state $112,544, Mr. Bailey said. Until
today, he said, one day after he appeared on a local news program to
complain publicly, the Hartford police had refused to turn over any more
money or even explain what the problem was.

Christopher M. Malany, an assistant state's attorney clearly exasperated by
the department's lack of cooperation, said: "That was one of the more
disturbing aspects of this. We tried to enter into a dialogue with them and
they didn't respond. There is no logic to it."

After a year passed with no money from the Hartford police, Mr. Bailey
wrote a letter on May 1 to the acting police chief, Deborah Barrows, asking
for an estimated $780,000 in overdue funds. On May 30, Chief Barrows
replied with a letter promising to turn over $257,684 within two weeks.

"We didn't get the money," Mr. Bailey said.

He produced a copy of a letter sent by Chief Barrows to the city manager,
Ms. Borges, on June 19, promising to have the department's bookkeeping
straightened out within four days. Time passed, but Mr. Bailey still did
not get the money. He held meetings with Mayor Mike Peters and Ms. Borges.

"We were stunned by what was happening," Mr. Peters said. But even after
the meeting, the police did not turn over any money, supplying instead what
the mayor said were implausible excuses.

First, Mr. Bailey recounted, the police said their administrative staff was
badly depleted from recent retirements and other departures. Then they
mentioned a problem tranferring the money electronically. "They explained
to me that they couldn't get a bank account," Mr. Bailey said, though
finding a bank had never been a problem between 1989, when the state
forfeiture law began, and April 1999, when the Hartford police last
complied with it.

Out of frustration, Mr. Bailey said, he wrote to the state auditor of
public accounts last month to complain. Finally, on Monday, he went to the
news media. Since his appearance on the 6 o'clock news that evening,
Hartford police officials seem to have found $125,000, which they promised
to hand over to state officials today, Mr. Bailey said.

Mayor Peters called the issue "a huge embarrassment" that only increased
the urgency of the city's national search for a permanent police chief to
lead the department into better times.

"If no one is going to be in charge," the mayor went on, "then get the hell
out of the way and let's get someone in charge. It's like every other week
there's something going on in that department that doesn't make any sense."
Last October, an independent study of the Police Department, commissioned
by city officials, found that crime-fighting units were disorganized and
that cash and property had been stolen from the department's evidence room.

Early this afternoon, Mr. Bailey said he was hopeful that the police would
deliver the promised $125,000.

But at 5 P.M., he called a reporter to say that the money still had not
arrived.

"I'm going to stay for 15 more minutes," Mr. Bailey said wearily.
"Hopefully it'll show up." But it never did.