LACK OF FUNDS SPELLS END FOR TASK FORCE

Wichita Falls City Manager Darron Leiker went into the budget process
for 2007-08 knowing that part of the undertaking would have to include
salaries to fold six employees into the Wichita Falls Police Department.

Those six had been part of the North Texas Regional Drug Enforcement
Task Force, which appears set to shut down at the end of September as
the interagency agreement funding it ends.

The reality started to sink in several months ago as the Texas
Legislature wrapped up its session without bolstering the task force,
Leiker said. The city and surrounding areas had hoped some dollars
would come through.

The task force has been operating for the past year and a half on
funds scraped together through forfeitures and contributions from the
entities that use the task force's services.

That's been putting a Band-Aid on the situation for a while to keep it
going, and the goal was to work with the state toward new funding,
Leiker said.

However, funding for regional task forces has dried up on the federal
and state levels.

Many funds in recent years have been devoted to homeland security and
border enforcement issues, several law enforcement leaders said.

So Leiker set aside $380,000 for the fiscal year. That way, instead of
laying off employees, the city will be able to keep them within the
ranks of the Wichita Falls Police Department. As Wichita Falls City
Council members vote on a final budget Tuesday, the item will include
Leiker's recommendations to bring a sergeant, four officers and an
administrative position from the task force back into the police department.

Wichita Falls Police Chief Dennis Bachman said the department will
welcome the officers.

"We've got experienced officers, and it's nice to have experience
back," he said.

The police department is operating right now with 13 vacancies, and it
is in the hiring process, but this will help add to the staff right
away, Bachman said.

He expects to have these officers working on cases that involve major
crime.

Some interest exists, especially from the county and some smaller
departments, in having the officers from Wichita Falls still available
to help when situations arise, Bachman said.

He gave the example of the police department's dive team, which
responds to other areas when called upon.

If the city were able to help with drug cases, there would probably be
some sort of memorandum of understanding, Bachman said. However, that
would depend on a lot of factors. Funding for those efforts is one of
them, and staffing is another.

"My No. 1 priority is the citizens of Wichita Falls," Bachman
said.

He said law enforcement agencies do everything they can to help each
other, and that will continue.

"We work with the FBI, the AFT and ICE daily," he said. "You have to
be able to pass information back and forth to each other."

Montague County Sheriff Bill Keating said law enforcement in the area
does work well together, and that's one silver lining, although he
hates to lose the task force.

"It's going to be a blow to us manpower-wise," he said. "Life goes on
and we'll just have to get our own people trained."

He said his office will look at its own immediate needs, and keep
working with the state to try to get some dollars for a regional drug
task force.

"They'll be sorely missed," he said.

Clay County Sheriff Tim King also said it would be a matter of
training his office's own people and working on taking down drug labs
within the county. The disposal of methamphetamine labs is one of the
things both Keating and King said will change for them, because the
task force was able to take care of that in the past. The labs contain
toxic chemicals.

Every situation is different, but disposing of a large lab could be as
expensive as paying to be part of the task force for a year, while a
smaller lab could be much more easily cleaned up, King said.

He added that the number of meth labs has dropped since Texas started
a law limiting the amount of pseudoephedrine - a key ingredient used
to make meth - customers can buy.

However, meth is just one drug, and a lot of people who end up in the
county's jail are there because of a variety of illegal - and even
legal - drugs, not to mention a list of crimes related to those substances.

"I hate to see it go," King said. "We're just going to have to bear
down and do what we have to to keep the people safe."

Keating said he appreciates all the task force has done, but he
understands the financial constraints that apply.

Leiker said that as Wichita Falls leaders worked on the 2007-08
budget, he stressed to the council members and residents that the
police department has a narcotics unit that covers the city.

"I don't want people to get the impression we will not be doing any
drug enforcement," he said. He said the city is adding these employees
into the police department, and those additional officers will be able
to help in a variety of areas. "I think we're stepping up to meet our
responsibility putting $380,000 in our budget," Leiker said.