PONTOTOC SHERIFF'S OFFICE MAY MOVE FROM NMNU

The County's Interlocal Agreement with the Nmnu Expires Oct. 1.

PONTOTOC - Sheriff Leo Mask is contemplating a move from underneath the
North Mississippi Narcotics Unit's umbrella that would allow him to take
Pontotoc County's drug problems into his own hands.

The NMNU is an 11-agency organization that pools each agency's resources,
in theory providing members with more manpower, equipment and funding. When
members of the unit make a drug-related property or cash seizure, the items
are turned over to the NMNU and the funds derived are used to purchase
equipment and assist each agency with their drug force. "If people are
selling drugs in our county and we arrest them, the people of Pontotoc
County should benefit from it," Mask said. "We shouldn't have to turn
everything over and just get a portion of it. We were elected to take care
of the people in Pontotoc County and that's all I'm trying to do.

"I've got an open mind to it, but they are going to have to show me how
we'll be better off with them than without them," Mask said.

The county's interlocal agreement with the NMNU expires Oct. 1. Mask and
NMNU officials are scheduled to meet with the county's Board of Supervisors
Sept. 30 to discuss continuing or ending the agreement.

The NMNU provides the Pontotoc County Sheriff's Department with additional
officers, drug "buy money" for undercover officers and something else
necessary in undercover drug work - surveillance equipment.

"We supply them with anything they need to make a drug case the right way,"
said NMNU Sgt. Marvis Bostick. "You can't do it the right way without the
equipment. The start-up cost with purchasing surveillance equipment is
thousands of dollars."

The NMNU also pays 75 percent of the salary for Mask's narcotics officer,
but Mask said his department can more than make up for the amount provided
to it by the NMNU by keeping the property and cash seized inside the county.

"We can have a good narcotics unit ourselves," Mask said. "If my guys
didn't work, I wouldn't get out of (NMNU). But my guys will get out there
and work.

"Ninety-five percent of the cases here we make ourselves," Mask said.

Bostick said the unit doesn't have an opinion as to whether Pontotoc County
should stay with the unit, but said it makes sense for smaller agencies to
pool their resources.

"We are not political," Bostick said. "We don't get into talking about who
should stay and who should go. I just see how much of an advantage it is
for an agency to be with us."

Bostick recently made a presentation before the Pontotoc County Board of
Supervisors where he pointed out the county has profited $25,000 within the
past four fiscal years.

The NMNU officers would still be welcomed to work drug cases in Pontotoc
County, Mask said, but the county would get a percentage of any seizures
made there.

Mask said his department will be able to pay for officers, vehicles and
surveillance equipment, like cameras and voice-recording wires, with the
money and property seized in the county. He said the county makes more than
50 drug-related arrests each year and estimates the department could bring
in about $100,000 by operating its own narcotics unit.

Bostick said the benefits of working with a group would far outweigh those
of keeping what is seized within one's own county.

"If I was the administrator of a smaller agency, I would definitely want to
be a part of the unit rather than be on my own," Bostick said.

Mask said any move would not necessarily be a permanent one.

"If we get out and see that it was a mistake, nobody has said we couldn't
get back in," Mask said. "We're just looking at what's best for the county."