Federal grant to pay for 8 deputies in Placer County
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office will be able to hire eight deputies to help combat the cultivation and use of illegal drugs throughout the county with a $2.6 million federal grant.
“This is great news for our county and its residents,” county Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery said in a press release. “Placer County’s grant will allow the Sheriff’s Office to add eight front-line deputies and will cover 100 percent of the funding for salaries and benefits over the next three years.”
The grant funds will be used to launch a multi-agency project that will:
* Expand communications with community-resource networks and strengthen working relationships with schools, nonprofit social service agencies, and other law enforcement agencies;
* Equip deputies working in the field with a better drug-related database;
* Conduct public forums to heighten public awareness of drug issues in local communities;
* Strengthen community oriented policing by expanding the Sheriff’s Special Investigations, Special Operations and Air Operations teams;
* Develop stronger partnerships with minority communities; and
* Help prevent youth drug abuse and protect youths from drug-infested environments through a host of strategies, including an expansion of educational programs in schools.
The sheriff’s office is proposing the introduction of an anti-drug program called the Drug Store in local middle schools, which is something the South Shore does now.
Placer County’s grant is part of almost $72 million in grant funds awarded to local governments throughout California by the Office of Community Oriented Policing, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.
More money wasted. Get a grip. There is not one thing listed in the article that will lower drug use. So we can arrest more people and spend more money locking the pot smokers up. You also notice that not only is the money going to hires but to new equip. like helicopters, more toys that the feds figured we need to combat the evil scourge of marijuana. Which by the way is legal for medicinal purposes. So it is also a states rights issue but who in their right mind would turn down federal money.
They could however get some value out of the money if used correctly. The school programs are good but they should include some treatment options for hard drugs. It is the hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, and meth they should be putting more effort into. How does a helicopter help catch heroin dealers? They get caught by undercover or just dumb luck on a traffic stop.
One thing that doesn’t sound right, “Develop stronger partnerships with minority community’s” that is just code. The only minorities in Placer Co. are mostly illegals. Illegals do not attend community meetings or town halls. How can the Dept. hope to have some kind of dialogue if they run the other way. They would do better using informants and spreading around that federal money if you want their help.
The part that really got me though is “Help prevent youth drug abuse and protect youths from drug-infested environments through a host of strategies, including an expansion of educational programs in schools.” Can you tell me, is there is a drug infested environment in Placer county?
It is not Oakland or skid row or the tenderloin. The kids in Placer are using drugs out of their parent’s medicine cabinet. That is where they need to start.
You see we are demand driven. Without demand you would decrease the money incentive. Then supply will drop. That is why treatment is the only thing that will turn this drug problem around.
Placer needs 8 new narcs to fight “drugs”? That’s bongwater! All that federal money is to fight medical marijuana. Sure, medpot may be legal under state law, but this huge $72 million federal grant has but one purpose — to ensure that everything possible is done to intimidate, bully, raid, arrest and terrorize our fellow citizens into giving up their rights under California’s historic medical marijuana laws.
But thousands of people are dying from Marijuana use…
errh…nevermind that’s meth. Why don’t we spend 2.6 million on meth dealers and manufacturers? We could deal with cultivators by legalizing, regulating and taxing. We could take those millions in tax dollars and give it to our schools to educate our students so they don’t take meth and make responsible decisions about marijuana when they become adults. We might have a few bucks leftover to bring Gym Class back!