CITIES, COUNTIES PLAN AHEAD

Entities Want Money Once Targeted To Task Force

The Amarillo Globe-News Cities and counties across the Texas Panhandle are
making a play to hang on to federal funds that used to go to the region's
soon-to-be-defunct narcotics task force. The Panhandle Regional Planning
Commission gave approval Thursday to a grant application that would keep
some of the lost funds in the area for use in youth drug treatment and
drug-lab interdiction.

"We're trying to do something in advance of the end of this task force,"
said John Kiehl, regional services director with the PRPC. "The problem
with the loss of this group is there will be a lot of communities and
counties that will be left to hang with a drug problem that is not going away."

The PRPC is gathering support from cities and counties across the area to
apply for grants from the governor's Criminal Justice Division. The CJD
distributes federal funds, known as Byrne Grants, to regional task forces
to fight narcotics.

The problem for the Panhandle is that in the wake of the controversial 1999
Tulia drug sting, the area no longer has a task force.

As part of a $6 million settlement of a federal lawsuit, the city of
Amarillo agreed to disband the task force effective the end of this month.

Because Amarillo disbanded the task force, it was forced to return all of
the Byrne Grants to the state.

"We could have sat here and done nothing with the demise of the task
force," said Gary Pitner, executive director of the PRPC. "But we thought
this was an opportunity to go to the governor's office and try to keep some
of that money in the Panhandle."

The plan involves asking the CJD to give the Panhandle some of the lost
grant money to provide training and equipment for law enforcement officers
to investigate and secure dangerous methamphetamine labs, a service the
Panhandle task force used to provide.

The grant applications also will include a request for money to fund about
$225,000 worth of drug education and treatment for youths, Kiehl said.

The two major obstacles to the grants are the timing and the cost.

"This will be kind of a roll of the dice, because the application deadline
has passed," Kiehl said. "But we're trying to take advantage of this
situation to make an attempt to keep some of that money."

The cost will also be a problem, because unlike the task force grants, any
grants received in this round of funding would have to be matched with a
25-percent payment.

The PRPC is planning to chip in $14,000 and use some creative funding to
offset the match, but a city or county would still have to pay around $400
for each officer trained in drug-lab interdiction.

The purchase of equipment used in that interdiction would also cost cities
and counties a 25-percent match.

About nine counties and several cities have thrown backing behind the plan,
including Potter and Randall counties.

Potter County approved a motion supporting the grant application Monday.
Potter County Chief Deputy Ken Farren said it is crucial to get some assets
in place to offset the loss of the drug task force.

"This drug problem is not going away," Farren said. "These (drug) labs are
a big problem in this area, and we've got to have the training and
equipment to deal with them."

While the narcotics enforcement grants are by no means a sure thing, the
PRPC gave final approval to a significant grant for area law enforcement.

The grant, which is part of a $20 million statewide terrorism prevention
program, will bring about $500,000 to the Panhandle to establish an
anti-terrorism information exchange system and an automatic fingerprint
tracking system.

Kiehl said the information system, known as the Joint Regional Information
and Exchange System, will allow local law enforcement officers to report
information to federal officials and allow the feds to send information
down to the local level.

"The idea is that if someone at the local level sees something amiss, they
can put that information into the system and it goes all up and down the
pipeline," Kiehl said. "That's how things get stopped, is through sharing
information and putting it all together."

The rest of the money will go toward establishing an automatic fingerprint
information exchange, which would allow officers to instantly check through
fingerprint analysis whether a suspect has a terrorist connection.