MORE DRUG TASK FORCE MONEY IN HOUSE BILL

While the Senate debates the federal economic stimulus package, local
drug task forces are optimistic at the prospect of receiving more
money for their offices than in recent years.

The $819 billion measure passed last week by the House of
Representatives includes $3 billion to be allocated over a two-year
period toward the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant
Program, the only source of federal funding that multi-jurisdictional
drug task forces receive.

The Senate version of the stimulus bill, which is currently under
debate, contains a one-time allocation of $1.5 billion.

Regardless of the outcome, drug task forces in the area will likely
see more Byrne JAG money coming from Congress than in years past.

"This year we're receiving $130,000 in grant funds, with the city and
county supplementing $49,500," said Tommy Loving, director of the
Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force.

Since the middle of the decade, the Byrne JAG grant was the target of
cuts at the Congressional level, with former President George W. Bush
calling for cuts to several federal programs in order to avoid
raising taxes.

The $170 million federal Byrne JAG allotment for fiscal year 2008 as
part of the federal omnibus budget bill represented a 67 percent cut
from the $520 million provided for law enforcement nationwide in
fiscal year 2007.

The Bowling Green-Warren County task force paid a prosecutor's salary
out of its most recent Byrne JAG appropriation.

The investigators who comprise the local task force - one from the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, two detectives
from the Bowling Green Police Department, three from the Kentucky
State Police and two from the Warren County Sheriff's Office - are
all paid through their respective agencies.

"We had to go to Congress each year and let them know how important
it was to communities to have this funding in place," said Loving,
who attended a conference in Washington, D.C., last week as part of
the National Sheriff's Association to discuss the stimulus package.

Task forces across the state were threatened with closing down last
year due to federal cuts, until state funds were found to offset the
gap in federal funding, a measure for which Gov. Steve Beshear and
Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown deserve credit, Loving said.

Van Ingram, acting executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug
Control Policy, said the state could not have done the same thing for
this year if cuts to Byrne AG at the federal level continued.

"The state was able to provide some leftover money that had been
deobligated from other grant years, and that helped avoid closing
task forces," Ingram said. "We can't repeat that scenario this year."

Jerry Smith, director of the South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force
based in Logan County, said his organization also relies on local
matching grants from the county government and the cities within
Logan County.

Butler County was a member of the South Central Kentucky task force
until last year, when city and county leaders there determined that
they did not have enough money to provide the match to remain in the
task force, Smith said.

"We would like to see Butler County back in the task force," Smith
said, although he added that the possibility of that county rejoining
the task force has less to do with increased federal funding than
with the support for the effort from elected officials within the
county and with the state of Butler County's budget.

With a boost in Byrne JAG funding through the economic stimulus bill,
drug task forces could result in resources devoted to more long-term
investigations resulting in more arrests.

Ingram said that when counties drop out of task forces, drug activity
tends to increase.

"It's early at this point, but I think if (the stimulus) goes
through, it gives us the ability to have more long-range planning for
our task forces," Ingram said. "We just haven't had that luxury in
the past."