VERNON PULLS OUT OF REGIONAL DRUG TASK FORCE

VERNON - The Vernon Police Department has pulled out of a regional
drug enforcement task force, citing a philosophical difference between
the local state's attorney's office and task force officials.

The Vernon department formally pulled out of the East Central
Narcotics Task Force last week after nearly 20 years of working with
nearby departments on drug investigations, seizures, and enforcement
actions.

Instead, police will pool their resources with a statewide narcotics
task force administered by the state police.

The narcotics task force was made up of Vernon, Manchester, South
Windsor, East Hartford, and Glastonbury and was designed to allow
those departments to combine resources to track illegal drug use in
the area.

But in recent months, local law enforcement officials began
considering a change and Vernon police Chief Rudolf Rossmy, Capt.
James Kenny, and Matthew Gedansky, state's attorney for the Judicial
District of Tolland, began having conversations about the possibility
of Vernon leaving the local task force.

Eventually, all three came to the consensus that it might be better
for Vernon to make the switch.

Kenny said Monday that the driving force behind the decision was a
difference in prosecutorial philosophy between Gedansky and the
overall task force.

The remaining four departments fall within the Judicial District of
Manchester, meaning whenever an arrest was made in Vernon, task force
officials would have to work with a different set of prosecutors with
different ways of doing business.

"He is much more exacting in what he is requiring," Kenny said of
Gedansky. "He has certain requirements we must meet. There is no
animosity. We wish the other members of the East Central Narcotics
Task Force well."

While he praised the work of the local task force, Gedansky said a
lack of resources often meant investigations were not as thorough as
he would have liked.

Gedansky said the East Central task force has a strong history of
successful investigations and has been staffed by many fine
investigators.

"We prefer as full as an investigation as possible, so we can learn as
much about a case as possible," Gedansky said. "ECN just hasn't been
able to provide the resources for those investigations as of late.
It's not really a reflection of them."

Sgt. Sandy Ficara of the Manchester Police Department, where the East
Central Narcotics Task Force is based, said that he respected Vernon's
decision and wished them well.

But Ficara also said that he believes the narcotics task force is
conducting thorough investigations and said the unit continues to be
successful in making arrests in drug cases, both large and small.

"Our cases our very, very solid," Ficara said today. "They just felt
they wanted to try something different. We'll miss them."

With Vernon now formally out of the local narcotics task force, police
are in the process of joining the state police drug task force.

Kenny said that process should be complete within a couple
days.

One advantage of joining the state police task force is an increase in
the number of officers and investigators available to work drug
investigations, Kenny said.

Before, when task force officers made a drug arrest, the identity of
the department's undercover officers was often revealed, meaning a new
officer would have be brought on board.

But Kenny said the state police have many more undercover officers,
meaning officers working in local undercover investigations might be
able stay on the beat longer.

"The state police tend to work more long-term investigations, which is
what Matt is looking for," Kenny said.

When Vernon, Manchester, and South Windsor teamed up to investigate
regional drug crimes in 1986, the resulting Tri-Town Narcotics Task
Force was the first multi-jurisdictional task force in the state,
according to the Manchester Police Department's Web site.

Officers from Glastonbury and East Hartford joined later and the task
force's name was changed to the East Central Narcotics Task Force.