REGIONAL COOPERATION

Jurisdiction Challenge Shouldn't Disrupt Drug Cases

We're all for protecting the public from vigilante police swooping
down and making arrests where they have no authority. Such disrespect
for jurisdictional boundaries would threaten civil liberties.

But no such threat is apparent in the questions being raised about a
regional drug task force's jurisdiction in 10 southeastern Kentucky
counties.

The legal challenge to the task force's authority is based on a
technical foul up: The required cross-county operating papers were
filed with the wrong clerk in the Jackson County Courthouse.

It would be a shame if red tape trips up this sorely needed regional
effort to combat drug abuse in southern Kentucky.

Interagency cooperation is especially important when investigating the
drug trade because local investigators become easily recognized among
illicit buyers and sellers in small towns.

Beyond the unique requirements of drug investigations, Kentucky needs
to encourage regionalism across the board. The last thing we need is
to throw up more barriers to cooperation among the state's counties
and local governments.

Kentucky's excessive number of counties leave taxpayers footing the
bill for a lot of duplication and inefficiency. Regional cooperation
is the best antidote for these problems.

The challenge to the task force's authority, filed by a lawyer for
someone accused of selling drugs to undercover agents, will come up
for a hearing early next month.

Initially, there were fears that a successful challenge could disrupt
hundreds of cases. Officials with Operation UNITE are now confident
that they can make the cases regardless of how the challenge turns
out.

No special authority is required to present information about a crime
to a grand jury, and a local officer was present when search warrants
were executed.

Circuit judges shouldn't accept any police shortcuts when
constitutional rights are at stake. But if this challenge is merely
the technicality it appears to be to non-lawyer eyes, it would be a
shame to let a tangle of county lines trip up what could be a model
for more regional cooperation.