CITY, COUNTY JOIN FORCES AGAINST DRUGS

Departments Say Information-sharing Paying Off In Arrests

When tips of illegal drug activity surfaced two weeks ago involving Daviess
County and Owensboro locations, two law enforcement agencies shared their
information, staked out both locations and made arrests.

The incident was one of about three joint investigations in the past two
weeks involving the Owensboro Police Department and the Daviess County
Sheriff's Department.

The two agencies have cooperated well during the past few years but hope to
keep building on that relationship, resulting in better intelligence and
larger drug seizures, Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain says.

Cain and Owensboro acting Police Chief John Kazlauskas plan to meet in the
upcoming weeks to discuss further ways the two agencies can assist each other.

"It's a sign of continuing cooperation," Cain said. "We anticipate that if
it changes, it will change for the better, especially with the new
administration."

Often the jurisdictional lines that divide the two agencies are crossed by
criminals who buy methamphetamine-making materials in city stores and head
outside the city to find anhydrous ammonia. The drug may be manufactured in
the county and sold in the city.

Police realize that criminals do not recognize jurisdictional boundaries,
Cain said.

Kazlauskas said the city police department will work with any law
enforcement agency to share information and combat drugs.

"We recognize that our area suffers from a plague of methamphetamine, and
the sheriff's department has done an outstanding job out in the county with
all the anhydrous ammonia," Kazlauskas said. "What happens in the county
certainly comes into the city. It's a community problem, and we've got to
work together to combat it."

In addition to the meth problem, there seems to be evidence of marijuana on
the rise, which is alarming information, he said.

City police Sgt. David Thompson, who oversees the street crimes unit,
usually talks each day with sheriff's Detective Sgt. Jim Acquisto, who is
the county's narcotics investigator.

"It pays off to have them assist us, and they do the same thing," Thompson
said. "If they hear of anything in the city, Jim Acquisto always calls me,
and we assist each other."

During the past two weeks the street crimes unit, which investigates a
broad range of crimes, nearly doubled when the department structure shifted
and the unit encompassed the department's special enforcement unit, which
handles narcotics and vice.

Currently, the unit consists of Thompson and nine officers. In two weeks
the unit has worked with the sheriff's department and also participated in
a Hopkins County investigation, Thompson said.

In that case, evidence of Owensboro drug trafficking led investigators to a
Hopkins County connection, he said. About 7 pounds of marijuana and several
new Cadillacs were seized.

Thompson said an example of the benefit of having two groups combine forces
was recorded in the past two weeks when the street crimes unit, with help
form the sheriff's department, seized 10 pounds of marijuana and $45,000
cash, busted two meth labs and arrested four people.

"That is because of the intelligence and informants combined in this unit,"
he said. "We have a whole lot more people that I can spread out." The unit
now has enough staff to provide 24-hour surveillance on suspected criminal
activity, he said.

Often sharing intelligence between the sheriff's department and city police
department results in additional information about the same suspect,
Thompson said.

"I find by working with each other, the intelligence gathering is just
tremendous," Thompson said. "When you put them together, it makes for a
much easier case."

Acquisto formerly worked for the Pennyrile Drug Task Force, which
encompasses 10 counties in western Kentucky, and he knows firsthand the
benefits of multiagency intelligence and communication.

Currently, the sheriff's department and Owensboro police have a good
working relationship, he said.

"We've worked with them on several cases," he said. "We meet quite often
and share intelligence. We're constantly communicating with each other."
Without cooperation between the departments, separate investigations could
focus on the same person or criminal group, he said.

In other parts of the country, law enforcement agencies have duplicated
services, with one agency staking out an alleged criminal operation while
they watch another police agency make an undercover transaction with the
suspected criminals.

Daviess County does not have a multiagency drug task force, unlike Warren,
Hardin and Jefferson counties, which pool resources from agencies to combat
drugs and other crime.

"I think we're doing as good as we can with what we have," Acquisto said.