FIGHT TO WIN

The White House's Proposed Cuts Would Undermine Central Florida's Drug War

Slashing the dollars spent on a special federal drug-fighting program
would hurt law-enforcement agencies throughout Central Florida.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program has been helping
local police since 1998. HIDTA has brought in millions of dollars to
help these agencies pool their resources and information to attack
drug traffickers.

But White House drug czar John Walters has proposed slashing the
spending nationally, complaining the program's focus has become too broad.

When the HIDTA program was launched in 1989, it focused on five major
metropolitan areas that are drug-distribution centers. It has since
expanded to 28 areas that have experienced major problems with drugs.

The expansions made sense to keep up with the drug dealers' latest
tactics and their newest illicit products. HIDTA makes it easy for
local narcotics officers to follow leads across jurisdictional lines
to build cases and make arrests.

In Central Florida, HIDTA proved effective in combating drugs along
the Interstate 4 corridor. Recent tips about drug dealing at a bar in
Kissimmee led back to traffickers in Miami and resulted in 23
arrests. Drug agents said that case would have been impossible to
build without HIDTA resources.

Within HIDTA there's certainly room to tighten spending. But the
better approach would be to examine carefully each community's needs
and target cuts, rather than go ahead with potentially devastating
across-the-board reductions.