Pubdate: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 Source: Jackson Sun News (TN) Copyright: 2008 The Jackson Sun Contact: http://www.jacksonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1482 CITY WEIGHS BEEFING UP METRO NARCOTICS UNIT The Jackson City Council on Tuesday will consider transferring more than $100,000 to the police department to hire 13 new officers during the final months of this fiscal year. The budget amendments, which spring from recommendations of a city crime task force, would send five new officers to the city-county Metro Narcotics Unit. The task force recommended that unit receive an almost $1 million total boost in personnel and resources. It was the group's main proposal for attacking a drug problem city and county law enforcement officials told task force members was the biggest influence on the area's crime. But statistics obtained from the District Attorney General's Office in Jackson show that the 12-officer unit's individual indictments have waned since 2003, when a tornado's tear through east and downtown Jackson touched off a spike in crime. The unit's drug indictments in Madison County Circuit Court fell steadily from 133 in fiscal year 2001-2002 to 42 in fiscal year 2005-2006, according to the statistics. Indictments rose to 76 during fiscal year 2006-2007. In Tennessee government, the fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following calendar year. Police credit the lower indictment totals to different bookkeeping, the larger amount of time needed to build meaningful drug cases, and an increased concentration on obtaining federal indictments that can mete out lengthier sentences for dealers and distributors. "That certainly does not represent all of the work," Jackson Police Chief Rick Staples said. "They may be investigating a case a couple of years before it materializes into an indictment." According to police records, the unit had 85 indictments during calendar year 2006. In 2007, the unit produced 103 indictments and an additional 34 federal indictments. More indictment statistics were not available last week, police and federal officials said. Police records show the unit took 31 cases to federal court in 2007 and 13 in 2006. The drug unit has made at least 200 arrests during each year since 2001 with the exception of 2003, the year of the tornado. The unit made 1,000 arrests in 2005, many in connection to an upswing in the theft and illegal sale of prescription drugs, said Jackson Police Lt. Barry Michael, the unit's commander. He said that year's arrests and a time-consuming process of verifying and tracing forged prescriptions could be to blame for the lowered number of indictments recorded in fiscal year 2005-2006. The unit arrested 416 in 2007 and 275 in 2006. Of all its arrests, many result in lower-level charges and fines worked out in lower courts such as General Sessions and City Court, Michael said. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath