POLICE, METH FORCE GET FUNDS

WASHINGTON -- A major congressional spending bill passed Wednesday by
the House will provide Chattanooga police with $1.5 million to upgrade
technology, and another $1 million to help the Southeast Tennessee
Methamphetamine Task Force, said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.

The measure also contains $1 million for a high-tech business
incubator in Hamilton County to aid New Economy businesses.

"The Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary (spending) bill is very,
very favorable to our region," said Rep. Wamp, who sits on the House
Appropriations Committee, the panel that shapes spending bills. He
said spending on the local projects was agreed to in a conference
committee in which House and Senate members ironed out differences in
the comprehensive spending measure.

Other provisions include $3 million for the Law Enforcement Innovation
Center at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The LEIC provides
training and technical assistance, information technology and research
to aid local law enforcement agencies.

The bill also contains $1 million for UT's National Forensics Science
Institute. Rep. Wamp credited Tennessee Republican Sens. Fred Thompson
and Bill Frist for their efforts on the UT funding.

An additional $300,000 in the bill is for the Chattanooga Endeavors
Program, a comprehensive rehabilitation program that provides
employment training and job placement services for former criminal
offenders in the Hamilton County area.

U.S. Attorney Harry S. "Sandy" Mattice praised Rep. Wamp's success in
obtaining the Methamphetamine Task Force money. It is the task force's
third year of funding, Rep. Wamp said.

Mr. Mattice said much of the money is earmarked to provide overtime
pay and equipment for task force officers. But the money also will be
spent to clean up hazardous chemicals used to create the highly
addictive drug.

"The manufacture of methamphetamine involves extraordinarily toxic and
sometimes deadly chemicals," Mr. Mattice said.

Lou Wilson, an intelligence and operations officer with the
Chattanooga-based task force, said the "average cleanup of a moderate
or small size lab is $2,000 to $5,000."

He said hazardous materials teams are called out to clean up the labs,
which have proliferated in East Tennessee. The task force operates in
some 18 counties.

Rep. Wamp said the technology grant for Chattanooga police will
provide the department with the tools to "do their jobs more
efficiently and effectively.. Officers will be able to reduce response
time, stay in touch with other officers and instantly check criminal
databases."

Chattanooga Police spokesman Ed Buice said the technology grant should
"really move us out of the Stone Age into the Information Age." He
said a "big chunk" of the money will go toward purchasing computers
for individual officers' cars. Some of the money could be used for
software upgrades and other items, Mr. Buice said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Wamp said obtaining the $1 million in economic
developing was a "real positive development that I didn't have high
expectations for. That's real good news."

Hamilton County Executive Claude Ramsey said the city and county are
rethinking a previous plan to build a stand-alone incubator for
high-tech businesses.

"This gives us the opportunity to do something on a different level,
maybe through Chattanooga State or UTC and with the Oak Ridge
fiber-optic project," Mr. Ramsey said.

He said Rep. Wamp "does a good job about picking up on what we're
trying to do in the community from an economic development
standpoint."