COUNTY IS CONSIDERING INTERDICTION PROGRAM

Cleburne County Sheriff Joe Jacks along with the Cleburne County Commission
held a work session and Officer Alex Gonzales with the Villa Rica Police
Department (Ga) I.C.E. Unit spoke to the group. The 2002 statistics from
that department indicated a total of $6,721,696 along with 31 vehicles,
valued at $430,000 seized; a total of 90 arrested of whom 63 were charged
with felonies and over $26,500,300 worth of narcotics seized. Gonzales noted
the I.C.E. unit trained 4,399 federal, state, county and municipal police
officers and helped 62 state, county and municipal agencies establish
successful "specialized" interdiction units. Sheriff Jacks and the
commissioners are considering establishing a similar unit in Cleburne County
and held out the possibility of hiring Gonzales and another officer to
operate in the county. Sheriff Jacks said the relationship with the
Calhoun-Cleburne Drug Task Force is excellent but he would also like to see
the county have their own interdiction unit as well.