BY RODNEY BOWERS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Copyright 2006 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
BENTON - One of the state’s more-active drug task forces made a strategic move this month to stave off a budget cut, but failed.
The Group 6 Narcotics Enforcement Unit, encompassing law enforcement agencies from Clark, Grant, Hot Spring and Saline counties, ousted two of its founding members, Benton and Saline County, on May 10 in hopes of preserving its current funding from the state.
Task force officials thought that by excising the unit’s two wealthiest members, they could persuade the state to reconsider cutting its budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. They reasoned that the rest of the Group 6 territory was primarily rural and relatively expensive to police.
But the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council, which administers federal funding for 19 drug task forces in Arkansas, didn’t budge.
Instead, it voted Thursday to approve across-the-board cuts statewide for fiscal 2007. As a result, Group 6 is budgeted for $177,000, down from $221,000 this year.
“Nobody’s got enough money,” said Keith Rutledge, the state’s drug policy director.
Rutledge said Group 6, which helped seize 172 methamphetamine laboratories in calendar year 2004 - accounting for more than 14 percent of the state’s total of 1,206 that year - received 8.26 percent of federal money allocated to Arkansas for fiscal 2006, which ends June 30. Next year, he said, it will receive 7.4 percent of the federal funds.
“They get more than anyone else,” Rutledge said.
A task force covering Washington and Madison counties was second in funding this year with $198,000. Even with the cuts, Group 6 will lead the state in funding next year, Rutledge said, followed by a fivecounty unit headquartered in El Dorado that will receive $159,000.
Rutledge said the cuts came after President Bush eliminated the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grant program from his 2007 budget. That money provided the vast majority of funding for Arkan- sas’ drug task forces, he said.
In fiscal 2005, the state received $4 million in federal funding, Rutledge said. Arkansas received nearly $3 million for the current fiscal year, of which about $1.7 million went to drug task forces.
Pete Dixon of Arkadelphia, the Group 6 director, said task force board members voted to drop Benton and Saline County not only in hopes of preserving its funding but also because neither had been active in recent months. He said other agencies bore no animosity toward the Benton Police Department or the Saline County sheriff’s office, even though those agencies had gone their own way more than a year ago.
“They just quit participating” in unit operations and meetings, Dixon said.
But, he added, “We’d take them back in a minute.” Group 6 is made up of the Grant County sheriff ‘s office, Sheridan Police Department, Hot Spring County sheriff’s office, Malvern Police Department, Clark County sheriff’s office and Arkadelphia Police Department. All are more rural and have less money than the two Saline County agencies, Dixon said.
He also said the “more rural, less financing” argument worked at Thursday’s drug council meeting for a group comprising Lonoke, Prairie and White counties. Dixon said that task force recovered half of its proposed 20 percent cut by having money pulled from a task force based in Sebastian County.
Richard C. Taft, chief of the Malvern Police Department and a Group 6 board member, said drug task forces are essential, especially in smaller communities where officers are well known and have difficulty working undercover. Drug task forces bring in unfamiliar faces, who can work covertly.
Taft also noted that each member agency contributes manpower and in-kind financing, such as vehicle maintenance, gasoline and cell phones, but that Group 6 members have little additional funding.
Capt. Jason Massey, a spokesman for the Saline County sheriff’s office, said the agency was not upset about being voted out of Group 6.
“The task force hasn’t been doing that much in Saline County,” he said. “We’ve got narcotics detectives and so does Benton. We’ve been working with them.” Massey wished Group 6 well, adding, “It seems to be a trend, taking money from these grants.” Group 6 replaced the former 7th Judicial District Drug Task Force, which included the six law-enforcement agencies in Saline, Hot Spring and Grant counties. The state shut down the task force in 1996 after its supervisor, former Prosecuting Attorney Dan Harmon of Benton, and its administrator, Roger Walls of Sheridan, came under federal investigation. The two later were convicted of extortion, theft and racketeering arising from their activities with the task force.
Group 6 emerged in 2000 with the original six members from the 7th Judicial District. It later added Arkadelphia and Clark County.
Dixon said the board’s decision to sever ties with Benton and Saline County also prompted the need to appoint a new grants director, a position previously held by Robert Herzfeld, the Saline County prosecutor. He said the group appointed Henry Morgan, the Clark County prosecutor.
Morgan said Friday that some Group 6 duties were being transferred to the unit’s secretary to cut costs.
“We’re giving the secretary more duties with less money,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to have to do to make it work.” Morgan said government agencies don’t always realize the benefits of fighting drugs, particularly when it comes to a community’s health and safety. For example, he said, the cost of cleaning residue from three homes or motel rooms used as methamphetamine labs could eat up nearly all of his group’s funding. Dixon added that it costs $7,500 alone to have hazardous-material companies remove chemicals and equipment from each methamphetamine lab.
With the ouster of Saline County from Group 6, drug task forces operate in 71 Arkansas counties. Benton, Carroll and Pulaski counties also are not part of a task force.
This article was published 05/22/2006