HIGHWAY PATROL TO BOOST TROOPERS' TRAINING

TAMPA - The highway patrol plans to step up training and oversight of its
troopers to prevent future affidavit problems.

Stung by news reports that have ``attacked the integrity and the trust'' of
his agency, Florida's top state trooper vowed Tuesday to step up the
training of highway patrol officers who assist in federal drug busts.

Col. Charles C. Hall, director of the Florida Highway Patrol, has ordered
additional safeguards statewide to ``provide enhanced oversight to all
enforcement actions,'' he said in a letter to The Tampa Tribune.

The news reports began with a cocaine case involving Trooper Douglas
Strickland, based in Tampa, who admitted that he and other patrol officers
have filed misleading and incomplete arrest reports to conceal the
involvement of federal agents in big drug busts.

Although Hall reaffirmed his agency's ``vital role'' in stemming the flow of
drugs along the state's highways, he said FHP does not condone
``misrepresentation of fact to anyone - especially the courts.''

``We cannot and will not employ any strategy that has a perception that `the
ends justify the means,' '' he said.

Hall could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but Maj. Ken Howes, FHP's
chief spokesman, said that all the agency's drug interdiction officers will
undergo training in early January to review the guidelines for such cases.
The troopers will be told they must have ``operational plans'' in place
before they agree to cooperate.

``If we get requests of this type in the future, supervisors will be
consulted, the state attorney's office will be consulted and our attorneys
will be consulted,'' Howes said. ``In other words, everyone will be in the
loop.''

Howes was unable to say Tuesday what training troopers have been receiving
about how to file affidavits and work with federal investigators.

Despite Hall's strong language, Strickland has not been disciplined for the
affidavits he filed and remains on the job.

Strickland testified at a federal evidence hearing in Tampa on Dec. 7 that
he and other troopers regularly participate in ``ruse stops'' and conceal
the involvement of federal agents in their arrest affidavits.

In the case in question, Strickland told a state judge, both in writing and
over the telephone, that he stopped to help a stranded motorist on
Interstate 4. Strickland said he ``grew suspicious'' of the driver - Michael
Leonard Flynn, 40, of Orlando - because Flynn refused to open his trunk.
After calling out a drug-sniffing dog, Strickland said, his partner searched
the car and found 220 pounds of cocaine.

But Strickland failed to tell the judge he was working with the FBI in a
reverse sting, and that he already knew the cocaine was there because he saw
undercover agents load it earlier that day.

Reverse stings are common in law enforcement. They involve agents posing as
drug suppliers who ``sell'' cocaine and other illegal substances to
unsuspecting middlemen who are later arrested.

In this case, prosecutors say, Flynn and two associates, Norman Dupont and
Dewey Davis, agreed to purchase the cocaine for an initial fee of $200,000.
The agents loaded the drugs into the car with the suspects' permission,
prosecutors say. They also secretly installed a device in the car that would
later be used to stall it by remote control.

After Strickland's testimony, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Jenkins ruled that
several of the statements in his arrest report were ``misleading, if not
outright falsehoods.''

Flynn, Dupont and Davis were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of
conspiracy and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. If
convicted, they face from 10 years to life in prison.

The highway patrol declined to comment on the Flynn case in detail, but
Hall's letter pointed out that the traffic stop occurred on May 19, 1998,
the same day that two Tampa detectives and Trooper Brad Crooks were killed.
Strickland testified that he could not reach any supervisors that day.

The Tampa Tribune has learned Strickland filed a similar affidavit in an
unrelated case in 1995.

Howes said his agency has not determined whether misleading arrest reports
were submitted in other cases.