DRUG FUND USE SEIZED MONEY FOR ITS INTENDED PURPOSES

LIKE MANY other police forces across the country, the Memphis Police
Department operates a confidential fund bankrolled by money seized
from drug dealers.

And like many of these forfeiture funds, which ostensibly subsidize
drug-fighting efforts and other law enforcement initiatives, use of
the credit card account that enables spending from the MPD fund
appears to be out of control.

It is in the immediate interest of city and police officials to rein
in the department's appetite for plastic. The city's confiscation of
the credit cards until guidelines for their use and access are
established is a necessary first step.

Drug seizure funds supposedly provide a ready supply of cash with
which police can make undercover buys, pay informants and pursue other
drug investigations. The rationale for these accounts is that they
apply ill-gotten assets from the narcotics trade to combat its growth.

But The Commercial Appeal reported this week that a credit card issued
on the MPD drug fund and controlled by its Organized Crime Unit is
available to a large number of police employees, not just narcotics
officers. Yet police officials cite "security" matters in refusing to
discuss details of the fund.

Charges on the account, which amount to $150,000 since 1996 and have
run as high as $12,000 a month (the limit on the card is $18,000),
reflect a broad - and inappropriate - range of personal items and
other questionable spending. Controls on the account are so lax that
there are no receipts for some transactions. The account has incurred
big finance and late-payment charges even when it was stuffed with
cash.

Former police director Walter Winfrey and his wife used the card at
two ski outfitters, the newspaper reported. The fund paid for Mrs.
Winfrey's travel on several occasions when she accompanied her husband
to professional conferences.

The deputy chief who heads the Organized Crime Unit has charged travel
and meals to the card. Other purchases on the account include car
washes, oil changes and window tinting.

Winfrey insists he repaid all personal expenses charged to the card,
but that is beside the point. A well-settled - and self-evident -
principle of corporate accounting is that personal and institutional
spending shouldn't be commingled.

City Atty. Robert Spence and interim Police Director Bill Oldham (who
has used the account for travel related to professional training, but
no longer does) say they have found no legal violations in the
account's operation. But they agree on the need for an audit of the
fund and specific guidelines to govern its spending. Here are some
suggestions:

- -- No one should be allowed to charge personal items to the account,
period.

- -- Any spending from the account must be explicitly linked to drug
interdiction efforts, or at least to criminal investigation in
general. Attendance at anti-crime seminars seems OK; new furniture for
the director's office isn't. Food for drug-sniffing dogs is OK;
wallpaper for executive offices isn't.

- -- Access to the credit card must be tightly limited, its purchases
fully documented, and its use scrupulously monitored.

- -- As much as is reasonable, the fund should conform to overall city
purchasing guidelines.

That the money in the drug fund is not "public," strictly speaking,
does not limit the need for public accountability in its spending
practices. Getting a handle on the account would be an important
reflection of the Police Department's commitment to openness that its
new director has expressed.