COUNTY WILL LAUNCH ITS OWN DRUG DIVISION

The drug enforcement division of the Maury County Sheriff's Department
should be in operation early next year, Chief Deputy Ashley Brown said
Monday at the Safety Committee meeting of the County Commission.

Citing January as the target date, Brown said even though the city will
have its own drug force, the two groups will share information.

"We're not mad at the city and the city's not mad at us," Brown said. "I
think we had a good operation going, and for whatever reason they've
decided that they can do better with one group, (with) just their own
supervisors supervising their people."

He added that they would still work together.

"We're going to continue to work with them, because the main thing is to
get the drugs off the street," Brown said.

He said all confiscated properties will go toward expenses related to drug
enforcement.

Brown said plans are to staff the drug enforcement division with two people
from the criminal division.

"Actually (we will probably) do away with the criminal division and the
criminal division personnel will either be moved to the field or those two
people will become part of the drug enforcement office," Brown said.

The Maury County Drug Task Force disbanded in October, when the Columbia
Police Department pulled out of the operation, citing a need to focus on
fighting the drug problem in Columbia. In July, Mt. Pleasant Police
Investigator Tommy Goetz was pulled off the task force by Police Chief Tom
Wilson, who said the department was facing manpower issues.