BOND, CARNAHAN TOUT ANTI-DRUG MONEY

Grants will attack meth, help rural law agencies.

Across rural Missouri, sheriff’s deputies taking big risks in busting
methamphetamine labs will receive new funding for staff, equipment and
training. Thanks to Washington.

Meanwhile, in Owensville, the nine-member police department will be suited
up with body armor and walkie-talkies. Other small police departments are
making similar purchases. Thanks, again, to Washington.

Federal money coming to Missouri’s grassroots crimefighters was promoted
yesterday by those who landed the money. Republican U.S. Sen. Kit Bond
secured $2.4 million from the Department of Justice for meth-fighting by
local sheriffs.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan’s Department of Public Safety sought
and won a $600,000 federal grant that will flow to about 100 police and
sheriff’s departments for buying cars and safety equipment.

The officials held separate news conferences yesterday to talk about the
funding — Bond in a visit to the Jefferson City Police Department, Carnahan
in his Statehouse office.

Bond was flanked by Cape Girardeau County sheriff John Jordan, who will
handle statewide coordination of the $2.4 million targeted for his
counterparts in counties with serious meth problems. They traveled to
several cities yesterday to promote the funding.

Bond noted that urban areas have won money in the past as part of federally
designated high-intensity meth enforcement zones. But many small sheriff’s
offices have been underequipped, undertrained and underfunded to fight the
highly volatile drug and the toxic mess created by its manufacture, he said.

"You don’t send somebody into a meth site who isn’t trained," Bond said. "A
hot flashlight can set off the ether in there."

The sheriffs are to meet with federal officials next week to begin the
process of distributing the money. Bond and Jordan said they hoped to have
money flowing within a few months.

Boone County sheriff Ted Boehm could not be reached for comment about
whether his department is in line for any of the new anti-meth money.
Detective Ken Kreigh said he doesn’t believe those decisions have been made.
"It’s my understanding that interested sheriffs will have to make a grant
application."

Kreigh couldn’t think of any reason why Boone County wouldn’t apply. The
county has more than its share of trouble with meth labs. Just last week, it
dismantled a lab in Sturgeon — with help from the highway patrol — where it
reportedly found a half-pound of the drug.

"There are two people in drug enforcement," Kreigh said. "We just can’t
handle all the work that comes in."

The grants to local police departments announced by Carnahan will pay for
items such as body armor, radios and surplus Missouri Highway Patrol cars
for reuse by local agencies. Owensville police chief Mike Capler, who
attended the news conference, said he won a $7,598 share of the grant by
seeking money for nine new bulletproof vests and seven portable police
radios.