Anti-drug aid to Mexico taking YCSO money

The Yuma County Sheriff's Office, like many others across the state, may lose its multi-agency drug task force because the money to fund it is being sent across the border.

Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden explained that earlier this year, Congress cut the Byrne/Justice Assistance Grant Program by 67 percent, from $520 million to $170 million for fiscal year 2008.

Ogden said the reduction in the Byrne/JAG program and the federal payments made to counties is being made to fund the first installment of the $1.6 billion Merida Initiative. That multi-year plan will provide Mexican and other Central American law enforcement agencies with equipment and training to improve counter-narcotics efforts.

"The bottom line is, this congressional move to provide Mexico and other countries with hundreds of millions of dollars to fight drugs comes at the expense of law enforcement in this country," Ogden said. "It is very frustrating."

As a result, Ogden said, the reduction may eventually force his office to disband the eight-member Yuma County Narcotics Task Force because the Byrne/JAG program, which is within the Department of Justice, is the main source of federal funding for offsetting personnel cost to staff the task force.

The task force, commanded by Lt. Jay Carlson of YCSO, is made up of himself and three other members of the sheriff's office, as well as one officer each from the Border Patrol, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Somerton Police Department.

"The funding is essential. It allows for agencies to have an officer on the task force without the cost to pay for it coming out of their budget," Carlson said. "If the funding goes away, we will lose three of the four positions that (YCSO) currently funds through the program. That will essentially force the task force to have to disband."

The task force's main focus is on street-level narcotics.

Carlson added, however, that the participating agencies could still fund a position on the task force. But it would have to pay the staffing cost of the officer itself, instead of federal money from the program.

Arizona's portion of the Byrne/JAG funding, which is where Yuma gets its money, went from $3.6 million last year to $2 million this coming fiscal year.

While the task force has already been awarded $254,000 for the coming year, which is based on the county's fiscal year of July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, Carlson said he doesn't know how much money the task force will receive, if any, in 2009-2010.

Ogden said he is also worried that the multi-agency task force, which relies mostly on the federal funding, once disbanded may prove impossible to restart.

In what could be another hit to the sheriff's office funding, Ogden said the Arizona Legislature is considering taking money from the state's Drug Enforcement Account, which his office also receives funding from, and transferring it into the general fund to make up for anticipated shortfalls in next year's state budget.

The state's Drug Enforcement Account is funded through levies, fines and seizures from drug-related cases, Ogden said.

What this means, according to Ogden, is that his office will lose even more funding because the reduction in Byrne/JAG program will take officers off the street who make drug-related arrests that generate money paid into the Drug Enforcement Account.

The sheriff went on to say without the state and federal funding, his only other option for the members from his office to remain on the task force is to ask the Yuma County Board of Supervisors for money from the county's general fund.

"This may not affect us six months from now, or even a year from now, but it is going to kick us in the teeth at some point," Ogden said.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.