A dispute over “sanctuary cities” between the city of Chicago and the federal Justice Department has had a ripple effect neither side could have anticipated: It has essentially blocked all of Kentucky’s drug task forces from receiving a larger portion of the funding they need to keep operating.
David Thompson, executive director of the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force, says the loss in federal dollars has left the agency, which does drug investigations in 13 counties, operating on reserve funds.
“What we’ve been operating on for the last three quarters is asset forfeiture money,” Thompson said. “We have about six months before that asset forfeiture money is gone.”
Kentucky drug task forces work with their area law enforcement agencies on drug cases, under the philosophy that a large task force will have the resources to take on investigations a smaller police or sheriff’s department wouldn’t have the manpower to handle themselves.
While the task forces do receive dollars from the counties where they operate and from asset forfeitures, a large percentage of their funding comes from federal Justice Assistance Grants.
Those JAG grants, however, can’t be distributed because of the dispute between Chicago and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions over “sanctuary cities,” which are cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration officials.
President Donald Trump threatened as a candidate to block federal dollars to “sanctuary cities,” and the city of Chicago filed suit after Sessions tried to force cities to work with immigration enforcement or lose their JAG grants.
According to the Chicago Tribune, in September, a federal judge in Chicago ruled Sessions had likely exceeded his authority. The Justice Department filed a motion asking that the judge’s order apply only to Chicago so JAG funds could be distributed elsewhere. But the Tribune reported the judge determined the “rule of law is undermined” if federal officials were allowed to force other cities to cooperate on immigration enforcement before the outcome of the lawsuit is decided.
“What’s so frustrating is one federal judge can (block) the fund for the entire country,” said Tommy Loving, executive director of the Kentucky Narcotics Officers Association and head of the Warren County Drug Task Force.
“The last conversation I had with people in the Department of Justice, they were hopeful by the end of the month there would be some resolution,” Loving said Friday. But he said he’s heard nothing since.
The Pennyrile task force receives about $245,000 in Justice Assistance Grant dollars, which makes up about 75 percent of the agency’s funding, Thompson said. The 13 counties in the agency’s area provide about $90,000.
Some money comes from asset forfeiture but the sums are not usually great, Thompson said.
“We have have a seizure, we might be splitting that with three other agencies” that participated in the investigation, Thompson said. “The commonwealth gets its 15 percent. Because drugs like crystal methamphetamine, marijuana and opioids are trafficked into the region, “the money isn’t kept locally,” Thompson said. “It’s sent off to Mexico, Texas or New Mexico.”
Less cash on hand means fewer dollars for investigations, Thompson said.
“We are seizing large amounts of meth and marijuana, (but) you can’t go out and pay an informant with product,” he said.
The problem is affecting most of the other state drug task forces. While the Warren County Drug Task Force receives funds directly from local government, “every drug task force isn’t so lucky,” Loving said.
“The drug task force (director) over in Somerset … he’s very concerned,” Loving said. “He was in the process of approaching one of the cities in the task force area. He was going to approach them and see if he could get a loan.”
Even the Warren task force relies on JAG grant dollars, Loving said.
“All of us are in the same boat,” he said. It’s frustrating, “when you don’t know where your going to get that grant money.”
Thompson said the Pennyrile task force has made changes to the way it operates in an effort to cut costs. Those changes, Thompson said, haven’t been all bad.
For example, previous trafficking investigations required about three controlled buys from the suspected trafficker before an arrest was made. The money from the buys, which was often $600 or more, was essentially money the task force was sending to the traffickers, Thompson said.
Now, the agency often makes an arrest immediately after the first controlled purchase takes place.
“It’s actually been very good for us to do that,” Thompson said. “You’re getting the drugs off the street, and you get that person in jail quicker … To me, it’s more efficient, and a better way to do business.”
The agency has had to curb travel to counties where a bust isn’t imminent in order to reduce its gasoline purchases, Thompson said.
Thompson said he doesn’t know when JAG dollars might become available.
“The troublesome thing is the money is there” and waiting to be distributed, he said. “The problem is it’s tied up in a lawsuit, and that could be months and months, or even years.”
While drugs continue to be a very serious problem in Kentucky, “the ones out there fighting it are the ones facing the potential of closing their doors,” Thompson said.
James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse
Source: www.messenger-inquirer.com
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