SHERIFF LAMENTS CONTINUED GROUNDING OF DEPARTMENT HELICOPTERS

TOWN OF NIAGARA - Niagara County Sheriff Thomas A. Beilein was flying high
for five years until the County Legislature shot down his Aviation Unit by
eliminating it from the 2002 budget.

The move left the sheriff's three helicopters idle all year, nearly
destroying the department's ability to seek out and destroy the illegal
marijuana crops concealed within area cornfields and other remote areas and
conduct search and rescue operations from the air.

It appears the choppers will continue to be grounded in 2003 "unless county
finances become stabilized" or the department "can find another source of
funding" to get the program back in the sky, Beilein said.

But despite its elimination from the 2003 budget, Beilein said he hasn't
given up hope and is still attempting to resurrect the whirlybird program,
which he initiated in 1996 by obtaining the helicopters - free of charge -
from the military to conduct drug interdiction operations.

"We're looking at a couple different sources for funding. We've already
submitted a proposal to the State Power Authority and are waiting for a
reply," Beilein said.

He said the Power Authority was a natural place to turn to because the
authority requires heavy security to protect its hydroelectric plant off of
Lewiston Road, especially in light of the terrorist threat the county faces.

Beilein declined to discuss the alternatives if that plan does not fly.

The program costs the county about $35,000 to operate annually, with much
of the money coming from asset forfeiture in drug cases.

"It's not much when you consider we have in excess of $1 million in
equipment," he said.

He said the liability insurance also is mostly paid with forfeiture money.

If all his efforts fail, Beilein said he eventually may have to disband the
unit because the helicopters may begin to deteriorate from lack of use.

"Even though they are located inside (hangers at the airport), obviously
the use is an important thing in a helicopter. The seals dry out, the
gaskets get leaking and so forth. I suspect I may have to make a decision
possibly by next fall," Beilein said. "If something doesn't happen, we may
have to give it up and either sell them or give them to another
municipality, or something." If all goes well, Beilein said he believes the
unit could be back in operation within a month's time.

No matter, Beilein said, "I still think its a very worthwhile program. I
was very pleased with it. We missed it this year."

The Niagara County Drug Task Force had been harvesting and destroying up to
400 pounds of marijuana a year from remote fields across the county because
the Air Unit could easily search the countryside, Beilein said. "We were
unable to do that this past year. It just didn't happen."

He said the U.S. Border Patrol helped out on one occasion with its
helicopter, but that was about it. "When it comes to finding marijuana in
open fields," said Drug Task Force Chief Craig Harmon, "we have no program
without aircraft." Compared with locating large fields of plants with the
helicopters in past years, Harmon said, "We got 12 plants this year if we
were lucky."

With trained deputies spotting marijuana crops from the air, Harmon said
the helicopters could do in hours what would take his men "days and weeks"
to do on the ground. "There no comparison to what can be accomplished with
aircraft."

Even if investigators know there's marijuana growing in a large cornfield,
Harmon said, "It still is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Even
if you use all-terrain vehicles, the corn is so high, you can't see where
you are. You can't locate it. You're lost."

He said the helicopters not only help in spotting marijuana plants but are
also used to hover over the illegal crops so investigators can ride or walk
into a field and find the plants using the aircraft as a homing beacon.

The program is important, Harmon said, because it helps prevent the drug
from hitting county streets and getting into the hands of children.

"It's easier for kids to get marijuana that's grown locally than having to
go to Niagara Falls, Buffalo or Toronto to find it," he said. Beilein said
the Aviation Unit also was used to conduct searches and save lives.

"There's at least two, or possibly three documented cases where lives were
saved" by the Aviation Unit, Beilein said.

He said that on April 3, 2000, for example, Sgt. Ronald Steen rescued a
fisherman from the Lower Niagara River at the Whirlpool when he became
trapped on a rock about 50 feet from the Canadian shore as the swirling
waters, released from the Canadian hydroelectric plant, began to rise
around him. Steen stepped out onto the helicopter's skid and pulled the man
inside while Special Deputy David L. Torrey, the pilot, kept the aircraft
steady in the unpredictable gorge winds.

In another incident, on Aug. 25, 2000, Beilein said Sgt. Jeffrey Miller
exited an Erie County sheriff's helicopter about 150 yards from the brink
of the Horseshoe Falls and carried a 58-year-old woman found holding onto a
small, scraggy rock about 20 feet through the swift, chest-high water to
the safety of the chopper. He was recognized locally, statewide and
nationally for that rescue, Beilein said. It was a joint operation with
Erie County.

He said the unit also has helped with numerous other duties, such as
locating missing children, searching for fugitives and taking photos of
crime scenes and bad accidents for use as evidence in court.

While the Sheriff's Department still operates and does its job, the
elimination of the Aviation Unit "has taken away a valuable tool that
expands our ability to serve the public. It enhances what we do," Beilein said.