Pubdate: Fri, 26 Apr 2002
Source: Tribune Review (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460
Author: David Conti

SEMINAR FOCUSES ON FREE FEDERAL ANTI-DRUG GEAR

Police officers from 250 departments in Pennsylvania and surrounding states 
gathered Thursday in Pittsburgh to learn how they could get the latest in 
high-tech equipment to combat drug-dealing free from the federal government.

The heads of the area's two largest police departments, however, said they 
didn't get mailings about the event.

"Anytime you talk about free equipment, a team of horses couldn't keep us 
away from it," Pittsburgh police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. said. "I'm 
disappointed that they had this seminar here in our city and didn't tell us 
what it was about."

Spokesmen for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's 
Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center insisted yesterday they sent 
information packets about the Technology Transfer Program workshop to every 
police department in the state. McNeilly and Allegheny County police 
Superintendent Ken Fulton said they did not receive the information.

"We regret that the invitation sent to the chief was not received," said 
Jeff Kamen of the Policy Development Group, a Phoenix-based private company 
hired by the U.S. Army as a consultant for a program.

Pittsburgh has previously received equipment from the program. McNeilly 
said he got an invitation to give a welcoming address, but was never told 
what the seminar was about. Because of a scheduling conflict, Pittsburgh 
Public Safety Director Kathy Kraus gave the address instead, he said. City 
police sent narcotics detectives to the seminar at the Marriott City 
Center, Downtown, later in the day after Kraus told McNeilly about the 
seminar, he said.

Representatives from three municipal departments in Allegheny County 
attended the seminar, as well as officials from the Allegheny County 
Sheriff's and District Attorney's offices. They got a chance to peruse 
thermal-imaging cameras, advanced wiretapping equipment and hand-held 
devices called "mini-busters" that can detect bags of drugs stashed in 
hidden compartments in cars.

"The military and intelligence communities have developed much of this 
technology in their battle against terrorism," said Al Brandenstein, the 
director of the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center.

"The technology is applicable for counterdrug activities by traditional law 
enforcement and we can provide it to departments with limited resources," 
he said.

Lawrence E. Redington, the chief of police in Northumberland, 
Northumberland County in central Pennsylvania, said he would love to get 
his hands on the mini-busters to help stop the flow of heroin into his area 
in the central part of the state.

"We're about 15 minutes from Interstate 80, where drug couriers drive from 
New York west," he said. "Not only could we use those great tools to detect 
drugs hidden in cars, but any enterprising police officer will take all 
this technology and do what they can with it."

The center started its "technology transfer program" in 1998 and has 
provided equipment to 3,800 of the 18,500 police departments in the 
country, Brandenstein said. Through an application process, departments 
show why and how they could use a night-vision camera, video-stabilization 
system or computer software designed to detect money-laundering operations.

"We gather the technology, make it practical for law enforcement and then 
make it and the necessary training available," Brandenstein said.

Smaller departments such as Berwick Police in Columbia County, in central 
Pennsylvania, will mostly use it for drug probes, said Berwick investigator 
Robert A. Neiderhiser.

"We can definitely use some of this stuff to battle cocaine and heroin 
sales," he said.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, however, more focus has been placed on how 
local police can help in the fight against terrorism, Brandenstein said.

"Only 10 percent of law enforcement exists on the federal level," he said. 
"The cooperation must extend to the other 90 percent and they must have the 
proper technology to battle this."

Ron Ober, president of the Policy Development Group, said the city of 
Pittsburgh has twice received technology through the program. He also said 
police departments don't have to attend the seminar to apply, but can 
submit applications over the Internet. He said police chiefs traditionally 
do not attend the seminar, but send employees who work with technology.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens