TBI WANTS TO HIRE NINE MORE AGENTS

NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation wants to hire nine more
agents to bolster investigation of labs producing methamphetamine, an
illegal drug that is "a cancer" afflicting rural Tennessee, TBI director
Larry Wallace said. Wallace said the agency also needs $1.2 million to hire
14 more criminal intelligence agents and analysts for homeland security.

Wallace and directors of the Military Department and the Department of
Safety presented their budget requests Thursday to the House Finance Committee.

The TBI seeks $4 million in improvements for the next fiscal year, which
begins July 1. Besides the drug investigators and criminal intelligence
employees, the bureau wants to add 22 forensic scientists to ease the
backlog of tests necessary for criminal cases.

Lawmakers took special interest in a colored map showing the profusion of
methamphetamine labs in the state. The number of labs seized jumped from
102 in 1999 to 241 in 2001, with the greatest concentration in Hamilton,
Marion, Sequatchie, Grundy, Warren, White and Putnam counties. Each seizure
was represented by a tiny red dot on the map.

"My county is completely red," said Rep. Jere Hargrove, D-Cookeville. "It
is absolutely frightening."

Wallace couldn't say for certain why those counties are having the most
trouble, but he said the drug's low cost may be one reason. It can be
produced with ingredients bought at pharmacy, grocery or discount stores.

"Methamphetamine is the poor man's cocaine," he said. "The epidemic is
indigenous to rural parts of the state."

The labs are dangerous not only for the drugs they produce, but because the
process creates toxic fumes and the threat of explosion, said Rich
Littlehale, legal adviser to the bureau's drug division.

TBI now has 42 agents in its drug investigation division, Wallace said, far
fewer than those of surrounding states.

"TBI is the only agency in the state that has primary responsibility for
this," he said. "It pains me that we have only 42 agents. ... We're asking
for a pittance of what needs to be done here with these nine agents."

Even after methamphetamine fades as a drug of choice, he said, a new drug
will take its place and the extra agents will still be needed.

"Today its methamphetamine, tomorrow it will be something else," Wallace said.

The 14 additional criminal intelligence employees would assist federal
agencies in identifying people who pose a safety threat to Americans.

Wallace said the TBI receives information "that would make your hair stand
on end" and the need to have enough people to investigate and analyze the
information is especially keen after last year's terrorist attacks.

"The job is to separate freedom of speech from real threats," Wallace said.

As for the need for more forensic scientists, Wallace said TBI's crime labs
ran 180,985 tests this fiscal year on 58,807 pieces of evidence from 39,288
cases.

The laboratory case backlog in some areas is five to six months and keeps
growing, he said.

"TBI's crime laboratories have become the bottleneck to many criminal
investigation, the judicial process and the issuance of death
certificates," Wallace said.

Meanwhile, the Military Department seeks nearly $1.4 million in
improvements from the current fiscal year.