NorthwestMarch 24, 2012

Police chief says city will put more resources into local investigations

BRAD W. GARY of the Tribune

The Lewiston Police Department will pull out of the Quad Cities Drug Task Force next month as part of a plan to focus more on local investigations.

Citing changing philosophies on how narcotics should be investigated in the city, Lewiston Police Chief Steven Orr said he made the decision this week to withdraw from the regional task force to focus on street-level drug investigations and the crimes within the city limits that stem from drugs.

"It's a difference in philosophical strategies," Orr said. "Their philosophy is to go after the mid- and high-level suppliers."

Orr said the task force is well run, but it's strategy that can take detectives out of the region and to places like Yakima and the Tri-Cities is not something the city needs to be doing right now. He sent a 30-day notice of cancellation to task force director and Whitman County Sheriff Brett

Myers on Thursday.

The task force has members from most law enforcement agencies and prosecutors' offices on the Palouse and in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, though only a handful of agencies have assigned a detective to the investigative bureau.

The Whitman County Sheriff's Office, Pullman Police Department, Moscow Police Department, Latah County Sheriff's Office, Clarkston Police Department and Washington State Patrol all assign detectives to the task force.

Lewiston is the only agency of late to issue an outright withdrawal from the task force, though others have stopped assigning detectives for periods of time.

Lewiston Police dedicated an officer to task force investigations until about 18 months ago, and Orr said his decision to withdraw completely from the task force is made with local investigations in mind.

"We've seen some successes on our assault on drugs locally," he said, noting he's been able to augment his investigative unit with another detective.

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Myers said Lewiston's withdrawal began to affect the task force when it stopped assigning a detective, and the net result of Lewiston's pullout is it leaves fewer agencies to combat the problem on a regional scale. The drug problem is a regional one, Myers said.

"Narcotics investigations, at a broader level, we believe we can have a greater effect if we can go after larger sources," Myers said.

But that leaves a void that needs to be addressed with street-level dealers in Lewiston, Orr said, and on investigating crimes like burglary, shoplifting and domestic violence locally that can have drugs as their root cause.

"What I've decided to do is dedicate our resources to our local problem rather than go after the larger supplier," Orr said.

Lewiston already dedicates its former task force member to its own team of detectives that investigate a variety of crimes within the city limits. The city also employs an officer as a K-9 handler for a drug-sniffing dog. Orr said he's tried to dedicate additional training to patrol officers to seek out narcotics indicators that may be gleaned out of a traffic stop.

The city and task force will continue to work together and share information, Orr and Myers said, especially when the task force is working on an investigation that leads its detectives to Lewiston. The task force must also notify the city when it is working on an investigation within its jurisdiction.

"They're doing a good job, and they're having an impact, and I just have a need to meet the demand of the local needs of the (local level)," Orr said. "That's what I'm trying to do."

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Gary may be contacted at bgary@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2262. Follow him on Twitter @bwgary.

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