County narcotics team works undercover, investigates and books drug users
Squad hopes to work full time
Cody Ewers
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: News
Hillsdale County's narcotics team has made 15 drug-related arrests since its creation on Nov. 1 last year. It hopes to take more hard drugs off county streets by becoming a full-time squad, as soon as funds become available.
A handful of sheriff deputies and city policemen currently split their time between ordinary police work and undercover work, which includes buying drugs and setting up sting operations. They usually decide which houses to watch based on tips from civilians and convicted drug users. So far, they have successfully apprehended ecstasy, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana throughout the county, Sheriff Stan Burchardt said.
But the officers have to drop their narcotics work when ordinary police-work calls.
"It gets frustrating having a part-time narcotics force," Burchardt said. "It's a piecemealed team, but extremely effective for the amount of time and resources we're able to put into it."
Burchardt said financial cuts forced on the department make an increasingly expensive narcotics program even harder to operate.
Rising costs for equipment, such as surveillance gear, and field tests that tell officers on-the-spot differences between similar-looking substances like oregano and marijuana, are necessary due to the extreme specialization that many drug cases involve, Burchardt said.
"We're working with less and less at a time when crime is happening more and more," Burchardt said.
Though he could not make any estimate about the current amount of drug traffic in Hillsdale, Burchardt said he sees a direct correlation between drugs and other crimes like theft, because drug users need money to support their habits.
A handful of sheriff deputies and city policemen currently split their time between ordinary police work and undercover work, which includes buying drugs and setting up sting operations. They usually decide which houses to watch based on tips from civilians and convicted drug users. So far, they have successfully apprehended ecstasy, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana throughout the county, Sheriff Stan Burchardt said.
But the officers have to drop their narcotics work when ordinary police-work calls.
"It gets frustrating having a part-time narcotics force," Burchardt said. "It's a piecemealed team, but extremely effective for the amount of time and resources we're able to put into it."
Burchardt said financial cuts forced on the department make an increasingly expensive narcotics program even harder to operate.
Rising costs for equipment, such as surveillance gear, and field tests that tell officers on-the-spot differences between similar-looking substances like oregano and marijuana, are necessary due to the extreme specialization that many drug cases involve, Burchardt said.
"We're working with less and less at a time when crime is happening more and more," Burchardt said.
Though he could not make any estimate about the current amount of drug traffic in Hillsdale, Burchardt said he sees a direct correlation between drugs and other crimes like theft, because drug users need money to support their habits.
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