Pubdate: Sun, 19 Dec 2004
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2004 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Schuyler Kropf And Glenn Smith, Of The Post and Courier
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

HIT THE ROAD

Charleston Police Travel 70 Miles To Patrol Santee

SANTEE - This tiny town of motels and neon-lit fast-food restaurants
hugging Interstate 95 sits more than an hour's drive outside the
Charleston city limits.

But by the roadside, uniformed Charleston City Police officers make
traffic stops and write tickets.

For the past 2-1/2 years --unknown even to City Council members --
Police Chief Reuben Greenberg's police officers have set up patrols
inside a roughly two-mile stretch of Santee along the I-95 corridor.

The goal, according to Greenberg, is to catch suspected drug
traffickers long before they reach the Charleston area, roughly 70
miles away.

"People are going from Miami to New York to buy heroin and bringing it
back by car," Greenberg said. South American cocaine goes south to
north.

There's more to it than just intercepting drugs meant for the street.
"We get money out of it, man," Greenberg said.

Under terms of the contract Greenberg signed in 2002 with the Santee
police chief, Charleston gets half the assets seized by officers,
which so far has netted the department about $85,500 in cash.

The patrols are news to many members of City Council. Several said
they don't want to micromanage where Greenberg deploys his officers
but were surprised to learn that city officers conduct highway patrols
so far from home.

"Santee, as in the town of Santee?" asked seven-year Councilman Bob
George. "That's bizarre. I have not heard of that one. Tell me about
it."

"No, not that I recall," said Councilman Paul Tinkler when asked if
he'd ever been informed of the city's I-95 patrols.

Of the dozens of exits on I-95, Santee is considered good hunting
ground for drugs because it is the halfway point between New York and
Miami. That makes it a popular stop to eat or sleep.

"When (drivers) see the marked car, the average drug dealer freezes up
on the road," said Santee Police Chief Robert Williams, who has seven
officers on his force and is thankful for the Charleston help.

According to police officials, the Charleston stakeouts involve two
veteran city officers in marked city cars looking for speeders or
something as minor as an improper lane change. They are there on
average about four days a week, Williams said. "Sometimes they work a
six-or seven-hour day," he said. "It depends on how the hunting is
going."

The success of the patrols is open to interpretation.

The Charleston officers' cash seizures total about $171,000, and the
department keeps half, or about $85,500. But during that time, the
salaries for two officers stationed in Santee cost the city some
$100,000, according to a rough estimate by the department. That
doesn't include the cost of gas or vehicles.

Greenberg said the benefits of the program can't be calculated in
straight dollars. There is a ripple effect to getting drugs, money,
weapons and traffickers out of circulation.

In addition to the money recovered, Charleston officers wrote 1,500
warning and traffic tickets in their I-95 patrols, seized three
vehicles and 13 handguns, caught seven fugitives and found thousands
of dollars worth of cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, mushrooms and
the designer drug Ecstasy, according to police statistics.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley called the patrols wise police deployment.
"It's an opportunity to interdict drugs, some of which would be coming
down here," he said.

Riley issued a memorandum to City Council on Wednesday explaining the
city's Santee agreement -- a day after he and council members were
questioned about the patrols by The Post and Courier -- in which he
detailed his support. After Sept. 11, 2001, policing has changed,
Riley said, adding that information officers gather is shared with
federal authorities.

The cities of Sumter and Florence have similar patrolling arrangements
with departments in their interstate areas, Riley pointed out in his
memo. But locally, Charleston is the only large municipality with
contracted patrols on I-95; North Charleston and Mount Pleasant do
not.

Some City Council members said Charleston taxpayers shouldn't have to
fund I-95 drug hunts.

"I don't think it's good public policy to have officers of the city of
Charleston contracted out to another entity in a far-off jurisdiction
when we have plenty of drug problems here," said Councilman Henry Fishburne.

"It's a noble effort, but I think we ought to start at home first,"
said George, who said it was a stretch in the drug war to repeatedly
station contracted "privateer" city police officers on a battlefront
"three counties removed."

"We, in essence, have a speed trap in Santee," George
said.

Councilman Wendell Gilliard said he had no problem with the
out-of-jurisdiction patrols as long as in-city crime statistics are in
decline.

Greenberg defended the patrols, saying if police concentrate only on
the drugs that pop up inside their boundaries, "you're going to lose
the drug war."
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MAP posted-by: Derek