Pubdate: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 Source: Big Sandy News, The (KY) Copyright: 2002 The Big Sandy News Contact: http://www.bigsandynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1975 Author: Scott Perry SMILING FACES DON'T ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH It appears from all the signs that a cooperative effort to address drug trafficking concerns between Paintsville police and the Johnson County Sheriff's department is in a deep coma from which it is unlikely to recover. Though we are being told that problems are being worked out, the truth is that they are not and the animosity between the agencies is growing. Officials can put on their smiling faces in public if they want, but that doesn't stop the grumbling we hear behind the scenes. Nor does it repair the damage done. And, they aren't mending any fences, obviously (see letters to the editor), when they let the rank and file pull nails as quickly as they are driven. The impending collapse of the Paintsville-Johnson County Drug Task Force is clearly the result of personality conflicts and not the actual effectiveness of the project which, as we have detailed in a variety of news accounts, was quite positive. What a shame that grownups can't put their egos aside for the benefit of the masses. This isn't the first time such a beneficial and logical co-op among police has run into a dead end. A few years back, a similar but much broader consortium of law enforcement agencies went gunning for street-level dopers, making a sizable dent in the illicit trade in several Eastern Kentucky counties and communities. The Mountain Area Drug Task Force was working fairly well when it ran aground. It too was the victim of misplaced egoism, though the death blow was dealt through allegations, petty allegations, of mismanagement. Maybe there's something in the water around here that keeps our police agencies at arms length from one another. Certainly we'd rather pin our difficulties on a virus than come to terms with the possibility that we've got some very immature people carrying guns and badges. Ah, but the reality comes like a slap in the face. We've heard police officers from various agencies gripe more about the publicity their peers attract in the drug wars than they talk about the dangers of or solutions to our problems with drugs. Rather than applaud successes, by whoever, some officers and agencies just can't seem to control their green-eyed envy over who is and who isn't getting front-page notice. Rather than communicate their own department efforts with the media, some agencies just clam up, thinking they are punishing us by going incommunicado. We said this before, we'll say it again... This newspaper does not play favorites in news coverage. If one agency appears to get more ink than another it is because that agency invites us along when it makes a bust or it communicates with us regularly about its activities. Because we cover news in five counties we must weigh the news value of every picture we take and every story we write. The most significant make the front page. We have news bureaus in Louisa, Inez, Paintsville, Prestonsburg and will open soon in Salyersville. This paper strongly supports law and order efforts throughout the Big Sandy region, and our thousands of readers want to be kept informed about the efforts to reduce all crime. Right now, many of those readers would like to know why successful, effective projects are being shelved and why some of our police agencies are more concerned with who is getting publicity than how effective we are in the attack on crime. Right now, many of our readers would prefer that our police agencies bury the hatchets...somewhere other than in one another's backs...and get on with the business of making their communities, counties and region safer places to live, work and raise kids. In our book, fighting crime isn't about who gets noticed, but what gets done. Failure isn't an option any of us wish to publicize. - --Scott Perry - --- MAP posted-by: Alex