METH TASK FORCE BASED IN WATAUGA

County Will Soon Become The Home Base For a Regional Task Force To Combat
The Spread Of Illegal Methamphetamine Labs.

The county was awarded a grant from the N.C. Crime Commission to establish
the Northwest Methamphetamine Task Force. The county received $140,625 for
one year.

Watauga Sheriff Mark Shook said the task force will be an association with
Ashe and Wilkes counties, with the departments each pooling three drug
investigators who can be summoned for aid and mutual investigations.
Watauga was asked to spearhead the effort because of the number of
successful investigations.

The grant will also help establish an office which will be staffed by an
analyst. The office will feature a toll-free phone line for reporting
possible meth labs. A database will be established to track and compile the
reports, and also let investigators in other counties know about regional
arrests. The database will be shared by the participating counties.

Shook said the "meth cooks" have sometimes crossed county lines if they are
caught, and the database will enable departments to learn when repeat
offenders pop up. He also said there has been some networking among meth
cooks who join forces across county lines and operate labs together.

The task force is scheduled to begin operation in July. Shook said the
grant has a good chance of being renewed for another year. Methamphetamine
has become a major concern of state lawmakers, with a bill calling for
tougher sentencing now in the General Assembly.

The county received another $22,494 to pay for overtime incurred in drug
investigations. Shook said methamphetamine cases were consuming "by far"
the bulk of detectives' time and were also contributing to other categories
of crime.

The Boone Police department received $29,000 to expand its laptop program.
The computers are used in patrol cars to enable officers to more quickly
file reports from the field.

OASIS, Inc., a domestic violence shelter based in Boone, was awarded two
grants totaling $65,000. Altogether, Watauga received nearly $258,000 in
grants.

Statewide, $26 million in crime commission grants were awarded. The money
went to programs for at-risk youth ($5 million), domestic violence programs
($10 million), drug control ($6 million) and law enforcement communications
and technology ($4 million).