CNT'S ROLE IN DRUG BATTLE DEBATED

City and county at odds over best way to stem drug flow

Get drugs off the streets of Savannah.

Put the dealers behind bars.

That's been a popular response on the phone line set up for Savannah Morning
News readers to voice their opinions about combating violent crime.

But city and county officials are at odds over the best way to do it.

At least a dozen of 1999's 42 homicides have been classified as drug-related
by police. Sometimes the violence erupts over an argument about drugs.
Sometimes drugs are found on the victim.

In discussing solutions to crime in Savannah, Mayor Floyd Adams Jr. recently
suggested removing the city's 15 officers from the Chatham-Savannah Counter
Narcotics Team, a unit of 42 officers set up cooperatively by the city and
county in 1994.

The unit isn't working as it should, Adams said, and using the 15 officers
in a city-based drug elimination program might be more effective.

"The whole essence of this thing is that before we can get community
support, they must feel that we're all on the same side. We do that by
getting the drug dealers off the streets. That is not being presently done,"
Adams said Wednesday.

Adams and City Councilman David Jones are concerned that CNT isn't
functioning as planned.

"I don't think anybody's against CNT, they're just not doing their job,"
Jones said in a recent interview. "They wait for the big boys while the
little boys tear up the neighborhood."

Putting the "big boys" behind bars was one of the reasons CNT was created.
Local law enforcement officials and community leaders noticed that drug
trafficking was crossing jurisdictions. They wanted to pool their resources
to combat the problem, creating one collective force to serve everybody.

"They're the drug unit of choice for the county. They do all the long-term
investigations," said Lt. Gary Glemboski, head of the Savannah Police
Department's Tactical Reaction and Prevention unit.

The cooperative unit has officers from the city, county and all its
municipalities. It also has an advisory board of about 20, including all the
area police chiefs and an alphabet soup of state and federal agencies --
GBI, DEA, FBI, ATF and the U.S. Customs Service.

"The principal virtue of CNT is that it is a community-wide, coordinated
effort. Everyone who wishes to be a part of it is," Chatham County District
Attorney Spencer Lawton said. "Before, there had been inter-departmental
rivalries, even to the point of sabotaging each other's cases."

The original commander of CNT was Thomas Sprague, who's now police chief for
Chatham County. After he left, Steve Smith took over. Smith, a captain with
the Savannah Police Department, would have to leave the CNT commander job if
the city pulled out of CNT.

"I believe that the community needs a county-wide, comprehensive drug
enforcement effort," Smith said.

It's working, according to Tybee Police Chief Jimmy Price. Tybee Island has
one officer currently serving on the CNT.

"They've been very good with me so far," Price said. "I've had no problem
with them."

They've done quite a bit of work on Tybee, he said, but, like anybody else,
he'd like to see more.

"But we realize the drugs are not coming from Tybee," Price said. "You've
got to get to the source."

Drugs come from a variety of sources to Savannah, Smith said. Some are
delivered by the various parcel services. Others travel along the roadways,
including Interstate 95. The amount that comes in through the ports is
relatively small, especially when compared to cities like Miami and New York
where smuggling is more prevalent.

Smith points to the more than 4,000 arrests made in CNT's five-year history
as proof that it's working. The unit is closely advised by the county
district attorney's office, and has a 97 percent conviction rate, Smith
said.

Lawton said a big part of the conviction rate comes from offenders pleading
guilty and avoiding jury trials. Two assistant district attorneys work with
CNT agents directly to make strong cases, which saves the county from
high-cost jury trials.

But arrests and conviction rates aside, CNT's focus on long-term
investigations is not what the city needs, Jones said.

"They were supposed to get it off the streets," he said. "Six months and a
year is too long (for a single investigation). All we want is the drugs off
the street corners."

But CNT doesn't prevent Savannah Police from doing just that, Smith said.

"The city of Savannah is not precluded from disrupting street-corner sales,
and they should."

They do, Glemboski said. It's part of Tactical Reaction and Prevention's
mission.

"Our interest is more street-level (than CNT). We don't get involved in
search warrants. We haven't been doing that," he said.

Smith said CNT and Savannah Police meet regularly to coordinate joint drug
elimination efforts.

There's a misconception about CNT's role in drug enforcement, Lawton said.

"For some reason, that notion got out there that CNT only brings down South
American cartels." CNT has played an instrumental role in sending
street-level dealers to jail, he said.

As for TRAP's relationship with CNT, Glemboski said, "At our level, I can
tell you it's fine. My personal relationship is good. Our professional
relationship is good."

But Savannah Police are ready to take over drug operations if the city deems
it necessary, according to Glemboski and Interim Police Chief Maj. Dan
Reynolds. It probably wouldn't fall on TRAP's shoulders, though. There would
more likely be a separate drug squad.

That doesn't necessarily mean Savannah Police think leaving CNT is a good
idea.

"They're doing what they're supposed to be doing," Glemboski said.

Lawton said he understands the mayor's stance on decreasing drug activity in
Savannah. But he said cutting off cooperation with CNT is not the way to do
it -- in fact, he would like the city to contribute more personnel to CNT.

"I would agree with anybody who says we need an increased effort at the
street-level, open-air markets," Lawton said. "There's no question about
that. You can't have too much of that."

Savannah's most popular illegal drugs

1. Cocaine -- 895 arrests since 1994 for powder cocaine possession, and 402
for crack cocaine possession.

2. Marijuana -- 772 arrests since 1994 for marijuana possession, and 285 for
marijuana possession with intent to distribute.

3. Mind-altering substances -- 10 arrests for hallucinogen sale in 1999, the
first such arrests in CNT's history. A mind-altering substance growing in
popularity is Ecstacy. CNT confiscated 1,407 Ecstasy pills in 1999.

CNT Arrests:

1999 -- 833

1998 -- 901

1997 -- 778

1996 -- 686

1995 -- 686

1994 -- 433

TOTAL -- 4,317

Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team

Who: The CNT is a joint effort of the city of Savannah, Chatham County and
its smaller municipalities to combat drugs cooperatively.

There are 42 sworn officers who come to the unit from its member
jurisdictions. There's also a drug advisory board of about 20 people who
help set policy for the unit. Local police chiefs and representatives from
various state and federal agencies are on the board.

What: It makes drug busts, sometimes posing as potential buyers or dealers.
It's involved in long-term, detailed investigations of drug rings in Chatham
County. Locally, Savannah Police deal more with street-level drug sales.

The cost: about $2.5 million per year

Opponents: Drug squad focusing on big dealers, small-time pushers going
free.

Supporters: Long-term investigations of major players are necessary for
convictions.

To give your opinion on, or solution to, the crime problem, you can still
call our special line at 652-0464 or go to savannahnow.com and click on our
"forums" link. If you have any information on any crime, call Crime Stoppers
anonymously at 234-2020.

Crime and public safety reporter Erik Tryggestad can be reached at 652-0318.

Reporter Doug Gross contributed to this report.