State forcing South Tahoe drug task force to disband
By Kathryn Reed
Drug dealers and users may have something to celebrate with the New Year. For everyone else it might not be such good news that the South Lake El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team is disbanding.
SLEDNET is one of the 34 drug task forces being forced to shutdown because of state budget cuts. The remaining 18 operations in the state rely solely on federal money.
While the local agency has been around since 1988, the joint task forces of federal, state and local law enforcement have been part of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement since 1976. This is the oldest state narcotics bureau in the country, having started in 1927.
On Dec. 31, 170 agents employed by California will work their last day. This is part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s quest to cut $71 million from the Department of Justice budget over the next two years.
“If you take away the threat of being caught in this community, it is going to be disastrous,” Jeff Catchings, SLEDNET commander, told Lake Tahoe News.
“It would not be good. I cannot say that enough,” he said of eliminating the narcotics task force.
Catchings works for the state, but is one of the agents with enough longevity to be spared receiving a pink slip. Between now and the end of the year he is working with local law enforcement and the state to keep SLEDNET functioning in some manner.
In addition to Catchings, officers from South Lake Tahoe Police Department, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol are part of SLEDNET.
What the state brings to the table are resources and money. The state has a greater ability to gather intelligence, especially with drug trafficking, than local jurisdictions have.
“We are trying hard and looking at every avenue we can to keep this task force intact,” Sheriff John D’Agostini told Lake Tahoe News. “All the typical results you see in a drug ridden community, you would see that increase in the basin (without SLEDNET).”
All the local players are looking at operating SLEDNET — just without the state’s oversight. No money comes out of the local agencies’ general funds for the drug team – it’s grants and drug forfeiture money that pays for things. What the state picked up was Catchings’ salary and equipment.
Police Chief Brian Uhler said he and D’Agostini are trying to meet with Attorney General Kamala Harris to keep the asset forfeiture money in town to go solely for SLEDNET. That meeting, though, has not been arranged.
It might not matter if the meeting happens because Harris has been outspoken in not agreeing with the governor’s decision, saying she wants more control in how to make the cuts to her department. But she is not getting her way.
If the state doesn’t help resolve the issue, Uhler wants the police and sheriff’s departments to pick up the commander’s salary. But that will take an act of the City Council and Board of Supervisors to reallocate funds.
Uhler said the drug problem on the South Shore is huge, and that it would be worse without SLEDNET. He points to the heroin busts in town in the last year as examples of why SLEDNET must stay intact.
Catchings said marijuana is another significant problem here.
Highway 50 and the airport are conduits for drug traffickers.
“The FAA is constantly tracking tail numbers. A lot of things happen behind the scenes that people don’t realize,” Catchings said.
I work daily with LAPD Deputy Chief Stephen Downing, Superior Court Judge James P. Gray and Redondo Police Lt. Diane Goldstein. Each of these former drug warriors are retired and are now devoting all of their time and efforts to ending the tragic and failed public policy disaster known as the War on Drugs.
Like the dedicated and honorable members of SLEDNET, they once believed that drugs are a police problem and that aggressive policing would solve the problem. Instead, they saw colleagues killed, while local street gangs, violent drug cartels and terrorist were flush with drug money.
I work with other police, DEA agents, US prosecutors and judges who are members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and who have recently officially endorsed our efforts to place a voter initiative on the ballot to legalize marijuana in California.
Like it or not, all of these distinguished former drug warriors all agree that the War on Drugs has failed and that it has created far more harm than good.
Bankrupting local gangs, violent drug cartels and international terrorist must be our highest priority and we must begin by regulating and taxing California’s largest crop, like we do wine.
As Judge Gray likes to remind people, “You don’t see gangs or terrorists growing wine grapes in our national forests.”
Find out more about the campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Wine at http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/
See the LEAP Endorsement: http://copssaylegalize.blogspot.com/2011/09/cops-and-judges-endorse-california-2012.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+LawEnforcementAgainstProhibition+%28Law+Enforcement+Against+Prohibition%29
If anyone is intereting in supporting the cause to keep SLEDNET in the area, please write a letter to Gov. Brown.
Time is important with this issue.
Gov. Jerry Brown
State Capitol
Suite 1173
Sacramento, Ca. 94814
This is a very important agency we can not afford to lose.
The only thing they are worried about is their JOBS!
They’ve done a great job in our area and it would be very detrimental to lose them!
You can also email the Governor : http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php
And for the Attorney General:
Attorney General’s Office
California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
I found an email for her office for comments and complaints:
http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=PL
I wish I had figures on the amount of drugs they’ve taken off the streets over the last few years as that would be a great addition to the emails/letters. Anyone have this?
The cartels are the ones we have to get rid of but we also have to get rid of the dangerous drug traffic going through our neighborhoods. I’m not taking about your marijuana either…its the dangerous ones I’m more concerned with…heroin and meth.
Bummer, now this forum is going to become another pro and con pot one, instead of addressing SLEDNET and getting illegal drugs off of our streets.
30yrlocal asked the key question at the end of his/her post: “I wish I had figures on the amount of drugs they’ve taken off the streets over the last few years as that would be a great addition to the emails/letters. Anyone have this?”
Proponents are strangely quiet on this issue. If this is an effective endeavor, then the results would be splashed in front of everyone to justify the programs continuation. The fact that even the people invloved have not announced any direct benefit to their program should cause us to pause and consider a bit further.
I think G. Brown is a complete loon but maybe the state has actually looked at this program and realized it’s not getting the return on its investment that would justify its continuance… Just a thought.
Ya what is going on behind the scenes that people don’t know. Hey Jeff betcha people would be very interested to hear about how your his handling informants information and giving it to the very people they may have turned on. Or how about the ongoing investigation into an officers’ misconduct surrounding him seducing the the spouses of the men that he’s arrested only using the spouse’s case as a forum only further his relationship w the women to the point of sexual and emotional intimacy. Only when confronted with the allegations he completely lied about everything, unaware that someone had tangible evidence of his misconduct, however his word is supposed to be truth on the witness stand. You can’t just tell the truth when its convenient to you and expect to be looked at like an honest man. Jeff Catchings has done everything in his power to sweep this one under the rug, so he’s just as bad as the officers he’s protecting as far as honesty is concerned. Or the countless raids that have been conducted w no warrant. Evidence seized but none turned in and no charges filed. Strange to me! There are plenty more interesting things about slednet the community will learn of soon. These vultures need to be swept out of our community before they create anymore suffering in the name of the Drug War.karma It all comes back to ya whether your a dirty hippie or a dirty cop it doesn’t care.
Hi Jeff, see ya around Buddy!
I wish they had figures of the drugs and money they take off the street and do not report?!
Remember how well prohibition worked. Besides ending alcohol consumption, it reduced crime by 75%. Oh wait, I think I got that backwards.
Scary how the comment regarding slednet misconduct dissappeared
Hopefully my freedom of speech is honered and my comment isn’t censored and removed again
Fear Mongering:
“If you take away the threat of being caught in this community, it is going to be disastrous,”
To their credit, in the past year or two all of their busts published in the papers have been for hard drugs, one included pills. In many years prior to that, all I remember reading was about marijuana.
I am going to look around to see if there are published figures of their seizures. The numbers should be a lot easier to find, especially if they are trying to make the case for more funding
I found an article from the Trib, 2009
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20100226/NEWS/100229859
All good decisions are made using good information. We need more information.
Especially when faced with the reality that prohibition does not work and never has.
There’s a drug enforcement agency in Tahoe? I guess this is a newsflash to some-You can get any type of drug you want in So. Lake Tahoe!
You may read about the occasional bust. But there’s no shortage of dealers or consumers in town, neither of whom are hard to find! Since Slednet make’s no difference anyway, might as well save the tax dollars!
Parker+1
So now people who come into town will only have to look around for a half an hour instead of a whole hour to find any drug they want anytime of day 365 days a year.
Complete waste, drug testing in the work place (casinos) was the only action that ever made a dent in drug use.
Just add testing for food stamps and make student parking at the high school cause for testing and most of this would go away.
PS
I support legalization. Just trying to demonstrate how worthless this program has been.
BYE BYE WE DONT NEED THEM ANYWAY EVEN THE GOV. THINKS THERE A WASTE OF OUR MONEY!!!!!
If anyone is intereting in supporting the cause to keep SLEDNET in the area, please write a letter to Gov. Brown.
Time is important with this issue.Gov. Jerry Brown
State Capitol
Suite 1173
Sacramento, Ca. 94814
All so call Senator Ted Gaines Phone: (916) 651-4001
This is a very important agency we can not afford to lose.
Just legalize it and tax it. You already are prohibited from driving or going to work intoxicated, so those laws would still apply. Think how much money the government would save on drug task forces, enforcement of prohibition, care and feeding of prisoners, plus the additional revenue from taxes. And if drugs were not illegal, they would not be so expensive (drug cartels GONE) so you wouldn’t have to worry about somebody stealing your new television to pay for their habit. It would be as expensive as a beer!
IF ANY YOU WATCHED THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE LASTNIGHT ON THE SUBJECT “RON PAUL” HAD THE RIGHT ANSWER, IT NEVER WORKED FROM THE BEGINNING AND IT COST CLOSE TO A TRILLION DOLLARS SINCE IT WAS STARTED WITH NO RESULTS OF SUCCESS.
It was also mention the abuse of patients that are more dangerous are on legal pharmaceutical than the cartels smuggling substance.
Bottom line is, if immigrants can walk across the border, then so can anybody else including terrorism and dirty bomb material.
We’ve never dealt with really closing the borders or enforcing the legals,and whose illegals, not enough enforcment been done to fine American companys who hire and don’t report the law breakers.
America the number one abuser of all drugs in the world.
Got be a better way of dealing with the problem than stings and set ups, short prison terms that don’t work.
Court cost, prison time,health care,probation, add up to huge cost for all tax payers , belief it or not.
I would invite anyone to post their story describing a real life first hand experience in which SLED directly protected your life, liberty or property.
It is not going to happen. The agency did not protect our society. It had a different purpose. Special Task Forces are graft engines. It is the role they play in our society. Governor Brown would like the money to go to a different set of friends.
Drugs are a problem in our society. A serious one. But they are a health problem and you cannot treat a disease by throwing police at it.
Fortunately, the few left that brought us the travesty of the War on Drugs are getting on in years. Their backwards thinking, inspired by fascism, fueled by passive racism, will soon fade away into shameful memory. A generation remembered in history for nothing except the terror they wrought upon their own people, the wanton destruction of the American way of life, and the debt they foisted on their children.
Pot , No matter what you do,It is never going away,What a waste of money in trying to stop this ,Give it up and legalize it, Do not forget it grows,and grows.and grows.Wake up and smell the pot people ,get over it.
Well actually Kathy I do smell the pot regularly, but especially on the colder mornings with the right breeze. Blows right over my home from where someone else is growing it.
I will definately write Jerry Brown a letter thanking him for cutting failed policy out of the budget.
I am sure we can all look at this a year from now and notice absolutely no difference in the amount of organized narcotic crime in our region. These organizations rarely go after real thugs.
After spending four hours at the DMV yesterday watching and observing I don’t really see how any government agency can do anything well, at all, period.
Actually, to AFH, I reported suspicious activity to SLEDNET officers some years ago about neighborhood activities that appeared to be obvious drug dealers with different people coming and going on a consistent basis. They watched the place and apparently turned up a guy that was wanted for parole violations. Seriously bad guy. They earned my vote long before that though.
When your kid comes home spun from school or gets run over by someone using hard drugs just remember it is only a social problem, not a need for enforcement. Let law enforcement only be reactive to each individual drug crisis rather than at least getting some of it off the street before it creates a problem. Don’t get upset with the local law enforcement departments since they will not have the personnel to investigate the matter if and when it impacts your family either as a user,dealer,or victim of someone on drugs. Nailing the street dealer is important but even more so is to get the bigger guy who is the supplier. You can rest assured the suppliers will not be located with these cuts. Countless man hours are involved in such investigations.
I agree the war on drugs has failed but a threat of being caught has power to at least keep the transactions and usage out of the public’s face.
I have to admit I have gotten in more fights with drunks than I have with the guys fighting over a bag of Doritos after smoking pot.
I have always found it interesting when I have been on cultivation raids and contacted young people in their twenties who are on disability and receiving state aid since they cannot work due to their addictions (choice) to use drugs.
People on disablity/welfare who test positive, even for pot, should not receive the aid. Since all of this is centered on saving tax payers dollars then save the dollars too by removing the free handouts to those who chose to live a life on hand outs at OUR cost.
If you are really a retired cop and you think an addiction is a choice…. you are part of the problem.
I am glad that you are no longer a cop.
“addictions (choice) ”
I am glad you are no longer a cop, if that is your understanding of addiction.
RETIRED, THEY ARE AS INBEDDED AS MEXICOS HIGH OFFICALS RIGHT HERE IN THE U.S.A ON CAPITAL HILL!
The Kennedy’s, the Rothschild’s,Rockefeller’s ALL HAVE MADE HUGE FORTUNES WITH ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES.
“HOW COME THEY NEVER BUSTED THEM?”
Money talks and BS walks.
“addictions (choice)”
I am glad you are no longer a cop and angered that we still pay your retirement.
“Addiction” is absolutely a choice.
And what makes it worse, society’s definition of addiction has changed dramatically since I was young. Used to be addiction meant that without a substance there would be physical withdrawals. Now it simply means that if you’re not happy without a substance, you’re an addict.
Ridiculous. Americans have become weak, wimpy whiners.
Get a job and take care of yourself.
Addiction is absolutely not a choice.
Ask a psychologist.
I challenge you to go find doctors who will say addiction is a choice.
To Conservation Robot,
Interesting though that during my career in Los Angeles and South Lake Tahoe with all the people addicted on dope that I interviewed regarding their criminal activity and drug usage, never did ONE of them ever tell me that someone made them start to use drugs. Yet so many admitted they made bad choices and decisions to use drugs which in turn ruined their lives and ended them in jail, not only for narcotic violations but other criminal activity as well such as robbery and burglary. They made a free and voluntary choice to start doing drugs. Why should we as a society have to support them with welfare and disability due to their “inability” to work?
The worst drug that I saw for years was PCP until meth came on the scene. I never thought anything would be worse than PCP. Meth totally ruins lives and it is so prevelant thoughout our community.
The forum of public safety retirements was months ago.
If addiction is not a choice then how does one choose to get clean and/or sober? Every recovering addict I know says they knew they had an addiction and they knew using was self-destructive but the idea of not having that drink or fix or whatever was more than they wanted to “deal” with—until we each hit our own personal “bottom” and chose to get clean and/or sober or both. I know first hand that addicts must be held responsible for using and in my experience the professionals who treat addiction frequently are not themselves recovering addicts, and when you’re in recovery you have a very different perspective on your self-induced “illness” and your choice to use or not use.
My brother is a clinical psychologist. He says addiction is a choice. He’s also a former heroin addict.
Whether it’s a choice or not, making drugs illegal has not prevented drug abuse. If there’s a community where that previous sentence is false, please advise! But in South Lake Tahoe, where so many people consume drugs, and where so many people are profiting from the sale of drugs, and where it’s all so apparent for anyone to see if they’d just bother to look, it’s an insult to the taxpayer that there’s actually an agency that’s supposed to be preventing it!
None of those statements are an attempt to condone the consumption of narcotics! They are bad and destructive. Period! And no one’s tax dollars should support anyone who’s consuming them! But if there’s actually been a program that’s stopped drug abuse somewhere in these United States, someone should please advise!
LOVE IS A DRUG!
IT CAN YOU KILL YOU QUICKER THAN PILLS, BOOZE,HERBS PUT TOGEATHER.
BUT WHO’S GOING TO STOP Loving?
TRY GET AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WHILE YOU ARE HERE!
IT CAN LAST A LIFE TIME OF MEMORIES.
I remember that song.
The war on drugs is a complete failure. The government has failed its people miserably. It’s ok for the CIA to transport tons of cocaine in the 80s to fund the contras in Nicaragua, but throw its citizens in a cage and give them a criminal history for using drugs. Let’s stop paying these legal nazis and put that money into education.
Parker, the drug market is not divorced from the laws of economics. The laws against drugs will never remove all of the drugs of course. But the risk premium attached to a quantity of drugs is substantial and therefore the price increases. The higher price makes drugs less available for a person with given income.
I could not obtain any illegal drugs including pot. I would have to get motivated to find them and I would have to be willing to sacrifice something I value in order to afford them. And so at some level the war on drugs is successful. Slightly socially ackward geeks cant get and cant afford drugs.