NARCOTICS TEAM GETS INCREASED FUNDING

The South Coast Interagency Narcotics Team will get a significant
boost to its anti-drug efforts next year thanks to the recent passage
of a congressional appropriations bill.

The agency was notified earlier this week that a part of its federal
backing will nearly double, going from $60,000 in 2003 to $100,000
next fall. The funding is part of an omnibus spending bill that now
moves on to President George Bush's desk for signature into law. He's
expected to sign the bill within the next month.

SCINT, formed in 1988 in response to increasing drug crimes on the
South Coast, was one of several Oregon agencies that learned of the
new funding levels for the coming fiscal year.

While SCINT is pleased with the funding, it originally asked for
$120,000 from Congress. That amount would have almost covered the
costs for two full-time SCINT detectives - one dedicated for Coos
County and the other for Curry - said SCINT coordinator and Coos
County Sheriff's Det. Sgt. Craig Zanni.

Currently, the agency has one full-time investigator, and Zanni who
splits his time between investigative and administrative roles. SCINT
was forced to shed a full-time officer in September due to a lack of funding.

Zanni said he will approach other municipalities and ask them to
contribute money to pay the balance if the desire is to have two
full-time drug investigators. The door-to-door salesman approach is a
familiar tactic to Zanni who has often had to knock on city hall
doors to find willing participants in the program.

The North Bend Police Department donated one of its officers last
year which created a savings to SCINT because it did not have to
cover benefits.

"There will definitely be one (detective), maybe two depending on who
will pick up the difference," Zanni said.

Some years SCINT has gone without any federal appropriations and
survived on other revenue streams including funding from the
Community-Oriented Policing Grant and the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant
Program, Zanni said.

SCINT administrative aide Julie Simpson said the agency should learn
within the next few months the fate of the Byrne grant. Early
reports, she said, indicate the grant, that doles out hundreds of
millions of dollars annually to law enforcement agencies across the
country, could be halved.

Zanni said the continually unstable source of funding has kept him up
at night at times.

"We're teetering on the verge of extinction like the dodo bird was,"
he said. "We would like to have some money or help - or both. We
would take the help over the money."

At its peak, SCINT had about 14 investigators working for it in the
mid-1990s growing from an initial force of five to six in the late
1980s, Zanni said. Many of those officers were "donated" from local
police departments.

But, those times are gone.

In recent years, Zanni said, with ever-tightening budgets,
municipalities have been forced to pinch pennies and recall many of
those officers to simply carry out the more routine policing efforts
on their home turf. That puts added stress on the few who remain at
SCINT who are forced to deal with heavier workloads.

And, Zanni said, it could reflect in the success or failure of
busting-up drug operations in the future.

SCINT was formed, Zanni said, when small-time drug deals escalated
into more sophisticated and better organized operations that reached
beyond a single police department's jurisdiction. Suddenly, those
smaller departments found themselves facing big-time dealers. SCINT
was created to share trained drug agents amongst the smaller
communities that could not afford them in the first place, Zanni said.

That hasn't changed but the money no longer flows like it once did.

SCINT is a multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force whose membership
comprises officers from South Coast police departments, county
sheriff's offices, district attorney's offices and members of the
Oregon State Police in Coos, Curry and western Douglas Counties.

Other Oregon agencies that will receive funding once the bill is
signed into law include: $200,000 for the Lane County
Methamphetatmine Abatement Initiative, $450,000 for the Marion County
Sheriff's Office Breaking Meth Addiction Program and $50,000 for the
Lincoln County Methamphetamine Initiative.