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"It’s a power shift directed toward
drug enforcement," Montcalm told the Lincoln Daily News. "It
gives officers working that detail a chance to focus just on drug
activity."
It works like this. The department
schedules men on four shifts. When scheduling allows, Montcalm pulls
an officer from each shift and gives the group flextime to work
solely on drug enforcement. That means they do not have to answer
other calls or do routine patrol but can concentrate completely on
apprehending drug users and dealers.
For example, they might be stopping
vehicles that have been identified by community members as belonging
to drug dealers — searching the vehicles for marijuana, cocaine, and
the currently popular and very dangerous methamphetamine. The team
usually includes Cpl. Tim Kerns and Jack, a dog trained to sniff out
drugs.
"We’ve made at least 70 traffic stops,
and we’ve become aware of where these vehicles are hanging out. We
are able to focus on areas where drug trafficking is going on.
During the three times we’ve done this, we’ve made 15 arrests."
They may also be looking for parties,
which, if they involve alcohol, usually involve drugs as well.
The new drug enforcement program
started in May, Montcalm said. In July and again in September the
drug patrol was also out on the streets. The team may work on the
drug enforcement detail for a week or two at a time.
Drug activity slows down after the
Directive Prevention Patrol has been on the streets, Montcalm said,
but later it will pick up again, so the prevention efforts must be
ongoing. The drug patrol has no set time or pattern to be operating,
so users and dealers can’t second-guess the police activity.
"We’re going to continue this proactive
enforcement program as long as staffing allows," Montcalm said.
Vacation time and sick leave make it impossible to keep the drug
enforcement teams on the street continuously, because keeping enough
officers on each shift to provide regular police protection must be
the first consideration.
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this article]
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"We couldn’t do this without community
support," the police chief emphasized. "In law enforcement we cannot
just measure our success by arrests. We have to measure our success
by how well we meet the needs of the community. Our community
surveys entail a number of questions that help us focus on what
these needs are.
"Past surveys show that drug
enforcement is high on the community’s priority list.
"Our drug problem is about the same as
it has been in the past few years. But through community support we
are making more arrests than we have in the past. We hope to see a
decrease in drug activity in the future."
Drug use isn’t limited to any one
group, Montcalm said. It hits all incomes, all ethnicities, all ages
from juveniles to adults.
He is especially concerned about the
community’s young people. Peer pressure to use drugs starts at a
very young age. He’s been involved with programs to fight drugs for
the past seven years — half of the time he’s spent on the police
force.
He’s been teaching DARE — Drug Abuse
Resistance Education — in the Lincoln area schools, along with
helping to organize DARE activities, such as fishing derbies and
bowling tournaments. He has also worked with the Logan County
Sheriff’s Department on the tae kwon do competition. In addition,
while working with young people, he created an anti-violence program
that has gained national attention.
"I personally don’t want to see any of
our kids get involved with drugs," he said. "That’s a high priority
on my list. Some of the kids in this community who’ve died from
involvement with drugs are kids I’ve known personally, either when I
was coaching wrestling for School District 27 or when I was teaching
DARE, so this hits home with me.
"I hope this
new program deters people from using drugs and dealing drugs in
Lincoln. I hope we can put the dealers in jail or at least convince
them to stay away from our community."
[Joan Crabb]
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