Part 4 Of 4 Related Articles

AGENTS FIND COMBATING DRUGS ALL-CONSUMING JOB

It takes a special type of officer to work for the 1st Judicial District
Drug Task Force.

"You are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We work a lot of late
hours. Sometimes we have family plans that we have been looking forward to
for weeks that we have to cancel because something came up," said Kenneth
Phillips, director of the task force.

Despite the unpredictable hours, Phillips said the DTF is his favorite part
of law enforcement

"Most law enforcement is reactive," Phillips said. "We are most definitely
proactive."

Phillips heads a staff of nine officers who are on loan from local law
enforcement agencies in the 1st District. The task force is an alliance of
four sheriff's departments (Washington, Carter, Unicoi and Johnson) and
four police departments (Johnson City, Jonesborough, Elizabethton and
Mountain City).

These men receive extensive training in drug operations. While all law
enforcement officers are required to receive 40 hours of in-service
training each year, Phillips said the average DTF officer receives between
120 and 200 hours.

The officers also attend state, federal and private schools. Some of the
most practical schools include clandestine operations and detailed
instructions on how to dispose of the hazardous chemicals normally found
around a methamphetamine lab.

One area where the extensive training can be seen is in the paperwork. The
officers do a lot of paperwork.

An example of their paperwork was a warrant from a recent arrest. It
included an eight-page, closely-typed affidavit, detailing many days of
surveillance operations and controlled drug purchases.

Phillips said it is not unusual for the agents to spend 10 hours to write
such an affidavit. Their meticulous attention to detail on the paperwork is
also evident in their surveillance techniques.

Their scrupulous work makes it easier to knock on the doors of Judges Lynn
Brown, Robert Cupp and Jean Stanley at very late hours of the night.

"We have a great working relationship with every judge in the 1st
District," Phillips said.

The relationship does not normally extend to the Sessions Courts of the
district, Phillips said, because these courts are not courts of record.
Because the DTF normally works with federal officers from the FBI, the Drug
Enforcement Agency, and state officers from the Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation, they usually require a court of record.

Because the DTF agents work for District Attorney General Joe Crumley, they
can make arrests and operate throughout the district, and are not
restricted to their home county or city.

Phillips said that is important in trying to make drug arrests, because the
larger dealers operate in wider areas that overlap the jurisdictions of the
eight law enforcement agencies.

"Our goal is to get the middle- and upper-level drug dealers," Phillips
said. While they keep their eye on these big targets, local pressure makes
sure they do not forget about the small-time drug dealers.

The small dealers are the ones who are most visible to the public. Those
are the ones the public associates with drug crimes, so Phillips knows that
he must be concerned about getting them off the street, even though he may
get a lot more bang for his buck by catching a larger operator.

The department is well-equipped and well-funded, Phillips said. The largest
source of operating revenue is $200,000 that comes from property seizures,
fines and car auctions that result from the drug arrests made by the agency.

These funds are split evenly with the local law enforcement agencies who
supplied the agents. That means the task force is bringing $400,000 to
local and district law enforcement agencies at the expense of the people
they convict.

The next largest source of revenue comes from a Byrne Grant from the U.S.
Department of Justice. The task force receives $95,000 per year from the
grant, and must reapply every four years.

The local governments provide a total of $40,000. That is broken down by
the size of the jurisdiction. Johnson City and Washington County each
provide $7,500. The three other counties and the city of Elizabethton each
provide $5,000. Mountain City and Jonesborough provide $2,500 each. Those
funds enable the department to purchase sophisticated electronic equipment
for their undercover operations. The DTF has about $65,000 to $70,000 worth
of state-of-the art equipment.

These include tracking devices, tiny electronic transmitters that clearly
record whispers a mile away, and videocameras so small that they can easily
be hidden in small everyday objects.

"We have the best equipment around," Phillips said.

All of that equipment and the support of state and federal agencies is
intended to target drug pushers. Phillips said his nine agents have been
successful.

The latest statistics for the district, compiled by the TBI, show that in
2001 the nine officers of the task force had 117 arrests. These arrests
included 107 for narcotic violations, two for drug paraphernalia violations
and one more for weapons violations.

Many of these arrests are high-profile cases that go to U.S. District
Court, Greeneville. Several of these federal cases have resulted in life
sentences being handed down for the offenders.

While these statistics indicate the successes acheived in a single year for
the DTF, they also show that there is still plenty of work to be done by
one of the most unique law enforcement agencies in the area.