Pubdate: Fri, 22 Aug 2014
Source: Lodi Enterprise (WI)
Copyright: 2014 Hometown News LLC
Contact:  
http://www.hngnews.com/lodi_enterprise/ 

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5529
Author: Rebecca Rudolph

INVESTIGATING THE LODI DRUG PROBLEM

Police Explain Tactics

Drugs have been around Lodi for a long time, but nearly two years ago,
the death of a 17-year-old Lodi teen made the community strikingly
aware of its ramifications.

That's when Lodi Police acting chief Scott Klicko said the community
rose up demanding police address the issue.

"I don't think the public really knew how much investigating went on
prior to Jacob Adler's death, but since then, we have obviously been
in the public eye more, as they are expecting us to keep combating
it," Klicko said.

The soon-to-be Lodi High School senior died of a heroin overdose July
12, 2012, and his friend Lars Atkinson was sentenced to prison in
connection with his death. Ever since, drugs have been at the
forefront for the Lodi Police.

"All agencies have always investigated drugs diligently," he said. "In
past years, more diligently."

The whole department, chief, full-time and part-time officers, are
involved in investigations. In the past year, they've closed four
major drug investigations, with other smaller investigations.

These investigations vary, Klicko said.

Sometimes, it's finding drug paraphernalia during a traffic stop or
hearing a rumor around town. Or, sometimes a concerned community
member will reach out.

"You'll get a phone call or someone will come to you and say, 'so, I
heard so-and-so is doing this'," Lodi sergeant Scott Klicko said.
"However (tips) come into us, we have to investigate it... to see if
it's truly happening."

Based on the numbers of tips they get, Klicko said the community was
interested in the well being of Lodi, but also trust police to process
the information effectively.

Sometimes the information is true; sometimes it's not.

That's when the in-depth investigation begins.

They look into the suspect, their connections, enter it all in a data
system, make searches and work as a team to make sure nothing is
missed, Klicko said.

But, the television version where a police case is neatly wrapped up
in 60 minutes is far from reality.

A search warrant alone can take two to four hours to write, not
including the time it takes to find a circuit court judge to sign it.

For example, right now, Lodi police are starting to wrap up an
investigation they've been looking into for more than eight months.

There is also a lot of collaboration between different departments to
solve drug cases crossing city, town, county or state lines.

In one case, Lodi police charged a man for felony drug trafficking in
Dec. 2013 only because the Poynette police chief identified the
suspect's vehicle after talking to Lodi police.

We wouldn't be able to do it if we didn't have their support, Klicko
said.

When Lodi High School was searched with K-9 dogs this last year, teams
from Sauk City, Sauk County and the city of Wisconsin Dells all
willingly came to help.

Columbia County has two K-9 teams and are requested first since people
in Lodi pay taxes to the county, but, when their dogs are busy, other
departments are ready to help.

Using K-9 teams are only one way they collaborate, also sharing
information and potential suspect movement. It might be crossing
jurisdictions, but not motivation.

"We're all doing the same thing and looking for the same goal," Klicko
said.

During this process, everything is confidential - what they find, who
is a person of interest and any details relating to the case.

"We promote transparency as much as possible, but we have obvious
reasons not to be transparent when it comes to drug investigations,
otherwise we'd never be successful," Laughlin said. "(For instance),
nobody would come to us with information knowing their name would be
leaked right away."

Drugs in Lodi

Right now, they said drug investigations have been slow, but in the
past they've investigated two or three at a time.

Former cheif William Laughlin and Klicko identified nine major cases
Lodi police have collaborated with other departments to crack during a
presentation to the Lodi City Council on Tuesday, Aug. 5.

These include a 399 marijuana plant grow in Dekorra found in July
2014, drug deals being made in the Lodi Middle School parking lot in
August 2013 and a 12 plant grow worth about $18,000 they found in July
2014 in De Forest.

The cases were normally centered around marijuana, because it is
easier to find and track, they said. Heroin is harder to track because
users typically ingest the drug, leaving almost no trail or evidence
of use. This makes cracking the heroin rings more difficult, they
reported to the council.

Even with these cases, Klicko said the drug problem in Lodi isn't
bigger than in other areas and by no means has reached an epidemic
level.

"I would say the number of cases and arrests is up dramatically, but
not because the problem has gotten worse," Klicko said. "(We changed
the approach by) hitting the problem head on and directing more
resources towards proactive policing."

Another way to prevent that is with a three-pronged approach,
including education, enforcement and rehabilitative resources, Klicko
said.

With their efforts to educate the community about drugs through groups
like Lodi Community Action Team (LCAT) and the department's
determination to enforce, the only prong missing is the rehabilitative
resources, Laughlin said.

The economic downturn downsized those resources, he
explained.

If you have information about drug activity, Lodi Police department at
(608) 592-5401.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D