DRUG UNIT IN TURMOIL

Lack Of Deputy On Drug Task Force Among Issues

Three months after U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner cited serious problems with
Kanawha County's Metro Drug Unit, some local police departments still don't
think the drug enforcement task force is as safe or efficient as it should be.

The sheriff's department pulled its officer out of the unit in May, and
some participating agencies say the vacancy has left a major hole in drug
operations.

"We have not been as effective as we could be with a deputy," said unit
Commander Steve Neddo of the Charleston Police Department. "It's a valuable
investigative tool that we don't have right now. . . . Right now, we don't
have a good line of communication with the sheriff's department."

Sgt. Jess Bailes, spokesman for the sheriff, said the officer assigned to
Metro had to be pulled because of a vacancy on road patrol.

He said the department still communicates with the drug unit but assigning
a full-time officer is not the most efficient way for the department to use
its resources.

"We don't have enough people right now because of the civil service
structure," Bailes said. "The public is getting more of a benefit from him
working with the department (than the drug unit)."

Bailes said the department signed a memorandum of understanding with the
unit and the "door is always open" for other agencies to coordinate
investigations.

The sheriff's department submitted the memorandum Tuesday and was the last
agency to do so this year.

Without that agreement, the drug unit is limited in conducting
investigations in unincorporated parts of the county where the sheriff has
jurisdiction, Neddo said.

In a letter sent in July to the sheriff's department and participating
police departments in St. Albans, Dunbar, Nitro and Charleston, Warner
referred to a lack of coordination by one agency as a "a life-and-death
matter."

Warner said in the letter that he had received reports of "law enforcement
officers from one jurisdiction" conducting drug operations in another
jurisdiction without prior coordination among officers or investigators.

"Even without a joint task force in place, operating in a concurrent
jurisdiction without coordinating with all respective jurisdictions is
highly improper, stupid, inefficient, lacking in professional courtesy and
extremely dangerous," Warner wrote. "Lack of coordination leads to
duplication of effort, premature termination of ongoing investigations and
totally unacceptable danger to working undercover officers and informants.

"Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line while doing their
job; the last thing they need to worry about is 'friendly fire' from those
who do not pay attention or refuse to practice such basic law enforcement
practices as coordination and communication among those agencies with a
potential stake in the crimes being addressed."

Other police officials specify it is the lack of participation by the
sheriff's department that puts the drug unit at risk. One source said it's
tough to plan undercover operations throughout the county when the unit is
not sure what operations the sheriff's deputies might also have underway.

"It makes it very difficult for the guys to go outside the municipalities
to work because they don't know what's going on," the source said. "(The
sheriff's department) doesn't even contact the local detachments and we're
the drug unit."

"It happens all over the country. You see police officers shooting at one
another and they don't even know it."

The drug unit now consists of officers from eight municipal police forces
and federal agencies who investigate tips on possible drug rings,
coordinate undercover stings and conduct drug raids. The officers' salaries
are paid with federal funds dependent upon participation agreements among
all agencies.

When the sheriff's department pulled its officer from the drug unit, the
department was no longer eligible for that funding and also stopped
receiving its share of money and property confiscated in drug raids.

Chief Deputy Phil Morris said accepting federal funds for a drug officer
doesn't necessarily add personnel to the sheriff's department; it just
moves people around.

He said having all deputies working together in their own jurisdiction is
more useful for the public than working on the drug unit's long-term
investigations, many which take place within city limits.

"Just this year, deputies have made 22 drug-related arrests. We've
uncovered seven meth labs," Morris said. "The drug unit benefits from
everything we do."

Last week, the department supported a request for 10 new deputies to be
assigned to the eastern end of the county and the Cross Lanes/West Dunbar
area, where deputies say drug-related crime is on the rise.

The County Commission would have to approve additional positions if a
deputy were to be assigned to the drug unit, Morris said.

Commissioner Kent Carper said he thinks the commission is prepared to sign
off on some new positions if the sheriff's department will accept federal
funding for drug unit officers.

He said the department's failure to assign an officer to the unit flies in
the face of its concern about drug-related crime throughout the county.

"It's a disgrace and it's not good law enforcement," Carper said. "If they
would assign someone to the drug unit, that would be like adding 13 people
(to the county's jurisdiction) immediately."

The commissioner also has requested the State Police assign a trooper to
the drug unit.