Pubdate: Sat, 19 Feb 2005
Source: Herald-Dispatch, The (Huntington, WV)
Copyright: 2005 The Herald-Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.hdonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1454
Author: Scott Wartman

HPD RESURRECTS DRUG UNIT

For first time in three years, officers will be devoted to undercover drug
work

HUNTINGTON -- For the first time in almost three years, the Huntington
Police Department will devote a unit of full-time officers for undercover
work combating the city's drug and prostitution problem.

The new local drug unit began this month and will be fully staffed by March,
said Lt. Hank Dial with the Huntington Police Department.

The unit will allow the police department to more effectively pursue tips
and complaints they receive from the public on prostitution and drug
activity in Huntington, officers say.

The city has had hot spots of drug activity such as the Artisan Avenue area,
where between September 2003 and May 16, 2004, 21 percent of the city's 290
drug arrests took place. But over the last year, drug arrests have been made
in many parts of town.

In between 2002 and this month when layoffs forced the police department to
close the drug unit, the Huntington Police Department relied on federal
grants to pay police officers overtime to perform undercover investigations
of prostitution and drug offenders, Dial said.

The Cabell County Violent Crime and Drug Task Force also aided the
department in rounding up drug offenders and prostitutes.

"This frees us up to concentrate on these problems of drugs and vice instead
of trying to do it and work a patrol shift," Combs said.

The drug unit creates a coordinated local drug enforcement effort that pools
complaints together and allows the police department to spot trends and
track illegal activity, said Sgt. J.T. Combs with the Huntington Police
Department.

Before, officers working on drug cases didn't always see the complaints
other officers were receiving, Combs said.

"I don't care how good of a police officer you are, you can't know
everything going on in the city," Combs said.

The Huntington Police Department's staff dropped from 103 officers in 2001
to 75 in 2002.

The re-emergence of a drug unit comes after the city brought its staffing up
to 88 officers with the hiring of four officers in the fall of 2004. As
officers began to finish their training in January, the department began to
assign officers in February to fulltime drug and vice enforcement, Dial
said.

"We are back up to 88 persons now, and we can have a local drug unit once
the guys get off training," Dial said.

More officers will finish their field training this month, and the unit will
be fully staffed by March, Dial said. He would not disclose how many
officers will staff the drug unit.

The officers in the drug unit already have busted two homes this month in
Huntington found to contain crack cocaine, including one with a cache of
guns, Combs said.
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