POLICE HAVE PARTNERS IN DRUG ERADICATION

The agreement by feed store owners to monitor and report iodine sales is an
example of a burgeoning partnership between police and businesses most
affected by drug criminals.

For the past year, the Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team has been
meeting with representatives of 16 selected business and community groups.
The group formed as a result is appropriately called NARC, or Narcotics
Awareness and Recognition Committee.

In essence, police are educating business owners about drug crime behavior
and asking them to report what they see.

It's been successful, by all accounts. Since November 1997, information
provided by NARC members has led to 79 criminal cases and the seizure of
four methamphetamine labs, said Eugene police Sgt. Pete Kerns, the INET
supervisor.

Tips from members also have resulted in police seizing 42 pounds of
hallucinogenic mushrooms, 20 pounds of marijuana, 15 firearms and $33,000
cash, Kerns said.

In one case, the owner of a Eugene packaging and shipping store opened a
suspicious package and discovered $4,000 stuffed into a teddy bear. The
money was intended to be a drug payoff, Kerns said.

He acknowledged the potential danger of asking citizens to get involved but
said merchants are told they shouldn't do anything more aggressive than
observe and report.

"It does take a lot of guts for them to report these observations to
police; they're concerned about retribution," he said. "I'm sympathetic to
that concern but I've never seen anyone hurt, or seriously threatened."

Businesses in the group include feed stores, shipping companies, banks and
credit unions, hotels and motels, rental owners, storage units, pharmacies
and hardware and gardening stores. All of them carry products or offer
services used by people who make, grow, sell or ship drugs, Kerns said.

Co-chairwoman of the committee is Marcia Flitcroft, manager of the Selco
Credit Union's Gateway branch in Springfield.

Drug users victimize banks and credit unions with stolen or altered credit
cards and checks, Flitcroft said.

"Sometimes what these people are doing is opening accounts with the
specific intent of defrauding us," she said. "They'll start bringing in
stolen checks, deposit them and withdraw the cash in the next day or two."

The credit union has become more cautious in who it allows to open an
account, she said. Employees check membership qualifications more closely
and run credit checks on applicants, she said. "If people choose to ruin
their own lives, I don't care," Flitcroft said. "But if they're cooking
meth in a local hotel room and the next night in goes some young family
with a baby crawling on the floor sniffing the fumes - we don't even know
what damage that causes at this point."

Dan Goss, the packaging store owner who found cash in the teddy bear, said
the people trying to ship drugs are easy to spot. In one case, he
discovered hallucinogenic mushrooms in a Chicago-bound package after
becoming suspicious of the shipper.

"It was a large box, very light, he wanted next-day air (shipment), paid
cash and had no problem with the price," Goss said.

Goss said he is allowed to inspect packages because his store is an
authorized United Parcel Service outlet. UPS opens packages for insurance
purposes, to make sure they are packed properly, he said.

In addition, Goss has a sign on his counter announcing that he reserves the
right to refuse service to anyone and to inspect any parcel.

"One day we (found) three separate shipments," he said. "It's been kind of
scary. We've been 100 percent right on every box we suspect but the scary
part is, how many are getting through us? How much is getting through those
other outlets?"

Checking people's packages is not a fun business and Goss asked that the
name of his store not be disclosed. Goss is a former police officer, and
said his conscience would bother him if he didn't take part in the NARC
project.

"If these drugs get shipped out of my store and end up in the hands of
someone who needs money to buy them, and ends up robbing and killing
somebody, then basically I have a part in that," Goss said. "Maybe I never
know if that happens, but at the same time why encourage it?"