B
BrnCow
When you see shit like this, be very wary. I saw the same article in the same paper last March...I think they are going to pick up fucking with people...
Ten months ago, when it was revealed its funding would quickly run out, the West Central Texas Inter-local Crime Task Force began the process of shutting down. The process should be completed by June 30.
Billy Schat,(hahaha) the task force commander, and another employee have been working since August 2011 to close the agency, which had served 13 Big Country counties since its inception in 1987.
The task force had seized more than $60 million in cash and drugs, and helped in the prosecution of more than 4,800 defendants. Agency equipment and vehicles already have been auctioned, and the final piece of business was to return evidence in pending cases to their home jurisdictions.
"I was over there last week, and they had very little evidence remaining. What is left should be gone by the end of the month," said Taylor County District Attorney James Eidson, the project manager for the task force.
The local task force was the last of its kind in the state. Thanks to a $9.9 million seizure in Mitchell County in 1999, it had remained operational long after others were shuttered. In 2011, with seizures down, the decision was made not to keep the task force, and its $750,000 annual operating budget, afloat.
Last year, Jones County Sheriff Larry Moore — Jones County was one of the 13 served by the task force — said the situation was essentially a Catch-22.
"If you do a real good job busting up drug rings and traffickers, they stop bringing money and drugs through your area," Moore said in a July 2011 interview with the Reporter-News.
In the time since the task force closed, its demise has been felt, two rural law enforcement officials said.
Coleman County Sheriff Wade Turner said drug activity may not have picked up significantly in his county, but he believes the loss of the task force will be detrimental in the long run.
"I went on the record saying the day they closed that task force was a bad day for all local law enforcement," Turner said.
"That group was a godsend to us that provided many capabilities we do not have, primarily their potential for undercover investigations. It will be sorely missed."
Turner, who has been in law enforcement for more than 35 years, said everyone in Coleman County knew all five of the sheriff's office employees, which limited their ability to run undercover narcotics sting operations.
"It's impossible to work undercover in your own backyard," he said.
Turner's concerns were echoed by Eastland County Sheriff Wayne Bradford.
"Everybody knows us here. They won't sell dope to any of my guys," Bradford said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety's narcotics division does help occasionally, Bradford said, but is not as available as he'd like. The lack of undercover agents has had an effect, he said.
"Drug trafficking has been picking up, and a lot of it has to do with a lack of undercover agents. DPS is still out there, but they're focusing on the big boys, and aren't really a resource we can use at our level," Bradford said.
Bradford said that, instead of sting operations, the county was focusing on traffic stops.
"Working traffic is our best option right now, using intelligence gathered from stops. We catch people with drugs, ask where they got it, and if they saw drugs there within 72 hours, we can get a search warrant and go in there and try to make an arrest," he said.
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/jun/20/multi-county-narcotics-task-force-to-officially/
Ten months ago, when it was revealed its funding would quickly run out, the West Central Texas Inter-local Crime Task Force began the process of shutting down. The process should be completed by June 30.
Billy Schat,(hahaha) the task force commander, and another employee have been working since August 2011 to close the agency, which had served 13 Big Country counties since its inception in 1987.
The task force had seized more than $60 million in cash and drugs, and helped in the prosecution of more than 4,800 defendants. Agency equipment and vehicles already have been auctioned, and the final piece of business was to return evidence in pending cases to their home jurisdictions.
"I was over there last week, and they had very little evidence remaining. What is left should be gone by the end of the month," said Taylor County District Attorney James Eidson, the project manager for the task force.
The local task force was the last of its kind in the state. Thanks to a $9.9 million seizure in Mitchell County in 1999, it had remained operational long after others were shuttered. In 2011, with seizures down, the decision was made not to keep the task force, and its $750,000 annual operating budget, afloat.
Last year, Jones County Sheriff Larry Moore — Jones County was one of the 13 served by the task force — said the situation was essentially a Catch-22.
"If you do a real good job busting up drug rings and traffickers, they stop bringing money and drugs through your area," Moore said in a July 2011 interview with the Reporter-News.
In the time since the task force closed, its demise has been felt, two rural law enforcement officials said.
Coleman County Sheriff Wade Turner said drug activity may not have picked up significantly in his county, but he believes the loss of the task force will be detrimental in the long run.
"I went on the record saying the day they closed that task force was a bad day for all local law enforcement," Turner said.
"That group was a godsend to us that provided many capabilities we do not have, primarily their potential for undercover investigations. It will be sorely missed."
Turner, who has been in law enforcement for more than 35 years, said everyone in Coleman County knew all five of the sheriff's office employees, which limited their ability to run undercover narcotics sting operations.
"It's impossible to work undercover in your own backyard," he said.
Turner's concerns were echoed by Eastland County Sheriff Wayne Bradford.
"Everybody knows us here. They won't sell dope to any of my guys," Bradford said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety's narcotics division does help occasionally, Bradford said, but is not as available as he'd like. The lack of undercover agents has had an effect, he said.
"Drug trafficking has been picking up, and a lot of it has to do with a lack of undercover agents. DPS is still out there, but they're focusing on the big boys, and aren't really a resource we can use at our level," Bradford said.
Bradford said that, instead of sting operations, the county was focusing on traffic stops.
"Working traffic is our best option right now, using intelligence gathered from stops. We catch people with drugs, ask where they got it, and if they saw drugs there within 72 hours, we can get a search warrant and go in there and try to make an arrest," he said.
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/jun/20/multi-county-narcotics-task-force-to-officially/
