Pubdate: Fri, 06 Dec 2002
Source: Clarion-Ledger, The (MS)
Copyright: 2002 The Clarion-Ledger
Contact: http://www.clarionledger.com/about/letters.html
Website: http://www.clarionledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/805
Author: Theresa Kiely

MELTON'S SELECTION AMAZES EXPERTS

Director of Drug Agency Not Sworn Law Enforcement Officer

Frank Melton's management and leadership skills can't compensate for his 
lack of law enforcement experience as the new director of the Mississippi 
Bureau of Narcotics, experts say.

However, Melton, the chief executive officer of TV-3 Inc. Foundation, said, 
"Law enforcement is not that complicated. It's about making decisions and 
doing the right thing."

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove named Melton, 52, Wednesday to head the MBN.

At least one-third of the director's time is spent on law enforcement 
issues, said Steve Mallory, chairman of the University of Southern 
Mississippi's Department of Criminal Justice and former deputy director of 
the MBN.

"This appointment is about politics," Mallory said. "This is about the 
Democratic Party trying to get votes. It's ludicrous to me that's it's come 
to this."

At a news conference Wednesday, Musgrove didn't respond to questions about 
whether the appointment is a way to appeal to black voters. The governor 
faces re-election next year.

Mallory says the MBN director:

a.. advises on complex drug cases;

b.. approves wiretaps;

c.. decides investigations;

d.. assesses risk factors in undercover operations;

e.. is a member of federal task forces;

f.. oversees destruction of evidence; and

g.. reviews classified documents.

"You can't release certain information to him because he's not a sworn law 
enforcement officer," Mallory said. Mississippi law prohibits the governor 
from making Melton a sworn enforcement officer, said Nancy East, a 
spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office.

Musgrove wouldn't comment on Melton's law enforcement inexperience, but 
said he expects the Senate to confirm Melton.

At the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, anyone supervising law enforcement 
operations must be a sworn officer, spokeswoman Vicki Metz said.

"To be an effective administrator, you have to understand undercover 
operations, surveillance and the agent's role," Metz said. "Anybody that 
deals with narcotics has to have enforcement experience."

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, with an $8.9 million budget, hires law 
enforcement officers to head the agency, said bureau spokesman Mark 
Woodward, who expressed surprise when told a person who is not a law 
enforcement officer was appointed to head the MBN.

"Our director, Malcolm Atwood, was chosen not only because of his law 
enforcement experience but the years he spent working narcotics 
investigations. He still goes out with the marijuana eradication team."

Melton has spent 27 years in the television industry in Mississippi. He is 
a board member of the Liberty Corp., the owner of WLBT-Channel 3, where he 
says he is going to take a leave of absence.

"The whole war on drugs has been lost in the past 30 years," Melton said.

"Now it's time to do something different. The mission of the bureau is 
going to be what I decide it will be. Intervention and prevention - that's 
going to be part of what we do. But the bad guys are going to go to jail. 
And they can forget about bail."

Ronald Brooks, president of National Narcotic Officers' Association 
Coalition, a nonprofit group in West Covina, Calif., said drug abuse costs 
society $160 billion a year. "Treatment, prevention and enforcement are 
like a three-legged stool," Brooks said. "If you saw off one of the legs, 
the stool tips over, but a narcotics agency's primary responsibility is 
enforcement."
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