Fighting Crime

DRUG FORCE FACES CUTS

The HIDTA Program, Used To Shut Down Meth Labs And Bust Drug Rings,
Might Lose Its $157,000 In Federal Funding

LAKELAND -- A Polk County drug task force that works to shut down
meth labs and bust drug rings will be no more if President Bush's
administration has its way.

Bush administration officials have said the federal program that
funds High Intensive Drug Trafficking Areas ranging from large cities
to small towns, including areas like Polk County, has become bloated.

"My fear is that these ( local law enforcement ) agencies aren't
going to be able to afford to have these officers on the task force,"
said Lt. Steve Ward of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Proposed cuts will slash more than half of the $227 million federal
program's budget, including the $157,000 budget for Polk.

In 1990, HIDTA task forces enlisted federal agents and local law
enforcement officers in New York, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and the
U.S. Southwestern border to combat drug organizations.

Now more than 30 cities, small towns, and other areas are under the
HIDTA program.

The cut is scheduled for Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year.

Critics said the cut will drain resources and shut down operations in
mid-sized regions, like Central Florida, and small Midwest towns
overflowing with methamphetamine and other drug activity.

The cuts would most likely push Polk County law enforcement officers
off the task force, officials here said.

The first HIDTA offices created would remain funded under the proposal.

Central Florida HIDTA combats a lot of the nation's drug trade in the
counties it covers: Polk, Hillsborough, Orange, Pinellas, Osceola,
Volusia and Seminole, said Terry Fernandez, director of Central Florida HIDTA.

Most of its $2.5 million annual budget pays overtime for the 120
police officers who work with the task force.

"HIDTA's intent was to keep law enforcement officers working longer
to keep drugs off the streets," Fernandez said. "We'd lose the vast
majority of them.

"We've ruptured that pipeline of narcotics that goes to the street."

More than half of the $157,000 budget for Polk County HIDTA pays
overtime for police officers, Fernandez said.

Lakeland, Winter Haven, Haines City and Lake Wales detectives, the
Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement, and the FBI make up the Polk County HIDTA.

The information shared between the agencies is "unprecedented," said
Lt. Ward of the Sheriff's Office.

Last May, the office arrested methamphetamine traffickers in
Frostproof and seized more than $1 million in assets, Ward said.

Communication about possible drug cases in Polk would stop if HIDTA
funding is taken away and smaller agencies would have to work drug
cases by themselves, Ward said.

The proposal would also move the HIDTA program out of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The switch wouldn't work well, Ward said. "They have a different way
of doing things."

To receive funding, detectives would have to present proposals to a
committee each time they wanted to stop drug traffickers, Ward said.

Florida representatives and other officials like Jim McDonough,
director of the Florida Office of Drug Control, are going toe to toe
with Washington to keep funding.

"I'm all for HIDTA staying in Florida. I would be short of honest if
I said it wouldn't have an impact," McDonough said Thursday.

"Whenever you take away resources it gets tougher," he said. "But we
always adapt strategy to meet our resources."

Whether the Office of National Drug Control Policy or the Department
of Justice takes over HIDTA is not the issue, McDonough said.

"Bottom line is that HIDTA is important to our efforts no matter
who's running it in Washington."