Red Ribbon Week may have come to a close, but that doesn't mean the fight against drugs has stopped in Utah County - even if the lack of funds is restrictive, says Utah County Sheriff Dave Bateman.
"There is more of a drug problem here than people would suspect," he said. "I don't mean to sound the alarm too loudly. Utah County is still a very desirable place to live, and the reason is because of the low crime rate and a drug problem that is far less severe than what we find in similar communities of this size across the nation."But there is a shift in size and in the complexity of the problem. It's getting worse instead of getting better."
Provo Police Chief Swen Nielsen said, "Things like Red Ribbon Week remind us that the problem has not gone away. It also focuses on the user. That is where the solution lies - at the consumer level, not drug enforcement. If there were no consumers, there would be no dealers."
Bateman said Red Ribbon Week raises the level of awareness in the community. But the drug problem will be manageable only if more resources are committed to the war on drugs, he said.
Bateman said President Bush's plan to increase funding for drug enforcement is a good strategy, but setting up the bureaucracy to disperse the money could prevent much of that funding from reaching its target.
"We need seed money to invest in a concerted effort to really get on top of this problem," he said.
As it is, the sheriff's department can't afford to put any deputies on narcotics investigations full time and has less than $25,000 this year to fund drug investigations.
"We are not doing nearly as much as we would like to because of lack of funding, but we have tried to be more innovative and sophisticated with the types of investigative technics," he said.
Bateman said his budget for confidential expenditures, funds set aside to buy controlled substances from drug users and traffickers, was $18,000 last year. With cocaine costing $1,600 to $2,200 an ounce, officers can only hit low-level street dealers or recreational users.
"Those dealing in large quantities are who we ought to be expending our efforts and resources on, but we can't even begin to talk because with $18,000 we can't buy a sufficient quantity to be anything but ridiculous."
The sheriff's department has been more aggressive in setting up check points and monitoring traffic for violations in trouble areas. At the check points, officers are able to check vehicles with court approval, which Bateman said has been "very effective as a deterrent."
"We are doing better, but we have to keep a step ahead of the criminal element," Bateman said. "We are just as efficient as people will let us be. But the level of toleration is just too high right now. I don't think for the most part people are concerned that drug trafficking is that big of a problem in Utah County. But it is.
"I hope politicians don't stick their heads in the sand and hide behind budget shortfalls. This is not a time to cut law enforcement's capacity to operate. If we don't pay attention to what's going on and spend some time and money, we're not going to save our kids."