NARCOTICS TASK FORCE RELUCTANT TO MERGE

Tarrant County's narcotics task force could lose millions in grant money and be forced to disband because its board unanimously rejected a state recommendation to merge with two task forces serving six nearby counties.

The proposed combined task force, which would stretch from Mansfield to the Red River, would pose too much of a liability risk for Tarrant County and could divert drug enforcement personnel from the metropolitan areas to rural communities, Metro Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit officials said.

The task force's nine-member board would prefer to form a partnership with Parker County.  A decision from the governor's office isn't expected until next month.

If the request is denied, the 16-year-old Metro narcotics task force stands to lose nearly 75 percent of its $3.6 million budget.  Without that support, the task force, which makes about 1,000 felony arrests and $25 million in seizures of illegal drugs a year, would probably fold, officials said.

Pat O'Burke, deputy commander of the Department of Public Safety's Narcotics Services, which oversees all task forces, said the merger was suggested because the counties have common investigative needs and drug problems that aren't exclusive to the major cities.

Counties have the right to chose not to merge.  O'Burke said the governor's office will work with the task force to obtain other resources, such as community block grants, if their funding is lost.

Commander Bill Russell said losing the Metro task force would adversely affect drug enforcement in Tarrant County, where only three of the 37 police departments -- Fort Worth, Arlington and North Richland Hills -- have their own narcotics units.

Last year, Tarrant County partnered with Ellis County because the state required task forces to have multicounty participation to receive federal grant funding.  But that partnership was short-lived.

After Ellis County announced it would withdraw participation June 1, state officials suggested that Tarrant County merge with the Cross Timbers and North Central Texas narcotics task forces to maintain eligibility for grant money.

The boards for the Cross Timbers task force, which serves Parker, Young, Jack and Palo Pinto counties, and the North Central Texas task force, which serves Denton and Grayson counties, have not met officially to discuss the state's proposal to consolidate, members said.

The merger is one of six the state is proposing as part of its strategy to create larger, more coordinated drug-enforcement task forces and use grant funding more effectively, O'Burke said.

In southeast Texas, the Jefferson County Narcotics Task Force has told the state that it wants to continue its partnership with the task force of nearby Hardin County.  The state has proposed that Jefferson County consolidate its task force with those of Liberty and Chambers counties, which would stretch the task force from Beaumont to Cleveland.

"It's quite a distance.  We just feel like this stretches us too far," said Ron Hobbs, Jefferson County Sheriff's Department deputy chief and task force commander.  "We don't really feel it's in our interest to expand larger than we are.  We feel like that our focus should be on our local problems."

Metro task force officials say that covering seven counties would bring far more complications than benefits.

Russell said there was talk about Tarrant County administering the grant money for the consolidated task forces, which would mean that it would be liable for any misdeeds, even those that occurred outside Tarrant.

"If the officers did something wrong, the county could be sued," said Russell, who referred to the 1999 Tulia drug bust.  Officers with the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force arrested 46 people, 39 of whom were black, based on the word of a lone undercover agent in a now-discredited drug bust that civil rights groups said was racially motivated.

A federal lawsuit was brought against the 26 counties and three cities that were members of the task force, and it disbanded as part of a $5 million settlement reached last month.

O'Burke said that if liability is a concern, the Department of Public Safety could serve as the grantee agency for the task force, as it has agreed to do for a San Antonio-area narcotics task force.

Russell fears that the merger might shift focus from the metropolitan area to smaller communities that don't typically have as high a volume of illegal drug manufacturing and distribution.

"It could conceivably pull resources away from the citizens of Tarrant County in order to serve rural outlying areas," Russell said.

Task force officials said merging with Parker County makes sense because of its proximity to Fort Worth, where many of its drug cases originate.

"Our boundary between Fort Worth and Weatherford is shrinking.  We're going to be next-door neighbors with the city of Fort Worth in the near future," said Weatherford Police Chief Jerry Blaisdell, who is also a Cross Timbers Drug Task Force board member.

Tim Curry, the Metro narcotics task force project director, said the board has been meeting with elected officials who represent North Texas to express their concerns about the merger and to find a way to keep the task force operating.

"The existing task force we're running, it's worked very well.  It's been good for the county," Curry said.  "We would like to come to some agreement with the Criminal Justice Division.  We know what we can't live with."