BREMERTON DETECTIVE ALLOWAY, THE GO-TO GUY FOR GROW OPS, RETIRES
AFTER 32 YEARS

Bremerton - There was a meth lab inside, but they couldn't prove
it.

Then-West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team Detectives John Halsted and
Roy Alloway walked away from the house after talking to the suspected
cooks.

But then, Halsted recalls, Alloway spotted the evidence they needed:
the driver's side mirror on a car, facing straight up, with a line of
white powder on it.

It was meth.

"That was what got us into house," Halsted said.

Alloway's attention to detail was often the difference in successfully
completing an investigation, say those who know him well.

The longtime Bremerton cop, whose stints at WestNET brought him
notoriety for his expertise and aggressive investigation of marijuana
crimes, is retiring this month after 32 years on the force.

"He was always one of them 'nose to the ground' kind of guys,"
remembers Dave Hughes, longtime Bremerton police patrol officer. "He'd
get a call, investigate and, normally, catch who he was looking for on
the same shift."

A graduate of North Kitsap High School who served in the Air Force in
Southeast Asia, Alloway became a Bremerton police officer in 1978.

Alloway's first undercover assignment was with a drug unit in 1985. He
was drawn to that kind of police work by "the whole idea of blending
into the criminal organization, and trying to do what you can to put
them in check."

Alloway also spent about half his career on patrol and about three
years as a crime scenes investigator. He helped form the police
department's current union and has played a part in negotiating every
contract since.

But it was his 10 years at WestNET, starting in 1998, that made
Alloway a well-known officer around the state, particularly for his
work in marijuana eradication.

Alloway became the go-to guy for "grow ops."

Law enforcement around the state was struggling to enforce the
ambiguous 60-day supply for medical marijuana patients that voters
made legal via initiative in 1998.

WestNET Sgt. Randy Drake asked Alloway to try to define what
constitutes a 60-day supply. His conclusion -- a maximum of 27 plants
in three different stages of growth -- became the standard applied to
cases around the state.

The state has more recently clarified the 60-day supply to be a
maximum of 15 plants in any stage of growth, along with 24 dried ounces.

His colleagues will tell you he was always gruff and always to the
point. His expertise in marijuana manufacturing investigations got him
a reputation among some in the state's medical marijuana community as
a hard-liner who was harsh on those who use the drugs for medicinal
purposes. He even had a strand of marijuana created by a local grower
named for him, according to Philip Dawdy, spokesman and co-author of
Initiative 1068, which aims to legalize pot.

Alloway views pot as a gateway drug and believes that the initiative
passed by voters has often been used as a cover for a criminal enterprise.

The "gruff" exterior coupled with a dry sense of humor and gift for
shooting the breeze that prompted many defendants to talk -- and talk
and talk, Bremerton Police Sgt. Randy Plumb said.

"The bottom line was that people liked him, and that spurred them to
give him information," Plumb said.

He developed a sense for finding grow operations by looking to a
series of indicators -- after all, being a drug detective is rather
repetitive, he said.

"You're doing the same case over and over," he said.

He'd look for condensation in the windows, for instance, a telltale
sign of a grow. He would check electricity meters to find out if they
were off the charts due to the need for lots of lights and heat lamps.
And of course, an unmistakable smell.

Being involved in the murky world of drugs has brought him trouble on
occasion. One person he investigated surveilled his house and screamed
at Alloway when he went to his mailbox; he had to get a no-contact
order from a court. His house has been burglarized twice, and he
suspects those were incidents of retaliation from drug criminals.

He won't miss that aspect in retirement. He's looking forward to
spending more time on the things he loves: hunting, fishing, guns,
gardening -- "No dope," the 55-year-old with a handlebar mustache adds
quickly -- and being with his wife, children and grandchildren. He
recently returned from a trip to Africa, where he hunted zebras,
wildebeests and impalas.

"I plan to ride my Harley into the sunset."