By TRICIA NEAL, CJ Staff Writer
Commonwealth Journal
Somerset —
A handful of Lake Cumberland Area Drug Task Force agents who were supposed to be stripped of their police powers at 9 a.m. yesterday were still carrying their badges yesterday afternoon.Somerset Acting Police Chief Doug Nelson had informed task force agents and board members that he had submitted letters to the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council requesting that the agents who had been sworn in by the Somerset Police Department have their police powers revoked effective Friday.
LCADTF Director David Gilbert yesterday said that the KLEC “had not received such notice” as of that afternoon.“At the close of day, the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council advised no one has sent them termination papers for any of the LCADTF agents,” Gilbert said. “They did confirm they had received a memo from the Somerset Police Department this week that it was going to happen today.”
In the past week, the City of Somerset has removed a Somerset Police officer from the drug task force, given notice of the removal of some drug task force employees from the city’s retirement and insurance plans, and threatened to strip some agents of their police powers.The officer was removed at his own request. Gilbert said he didn’t want to be caught in the middle of the brewing controversy.
LCADTF agents received a memo earlier this month from the City of Somerset stating that within 30 days, the city would no longer handle the drug task force’s accounting or payroll paperwork and that drug task force agents who had been sworn in by the City of Somerset would no longer be eligible to receive the city’s insurance or retirement benefits.Task force agents — and a local attorney — believe these actions by the city will put the task force in jeopardy of losing state and federal funding and other benefits, but City Attorney Carrie Wiese claims the city has no intention of harming the task force.
Regardless of whether the drug task force agents are terminated as sworn officers with the SPD, they’ve just learned they’ll be able to continue as officers with another department. During a special-called meeting Thursday evening, the city of Monticello’s council unanimously voted to accept the agents as sworn officers in that city’s police department if they lose their powers through Somerset.Monticello officials also agreed to become the grant-funneler for the drug task force if Somerset ceases to continue to be that source.
Gilbert still has concerns, however, that Monticello’s offer might not be sufficient for the Appalachian HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) agency, which provides grant funding and state and federal agents to the LCADTF. Gilbert has been told that, without the City of Somerset’s involvement, HIDTA will stop supporting the task force.Some drug task force board members and employees plan to appear before Somerset’s city council this Monday.
The Lake Cumberland Area Drug Task Force is a multi-jurisdiction drug enforcement law enforcement agency. It was created in 1993 as a project of the Somerset Police Department, when Gilbert was chief of police there. The LCADTF includes agencies in Pulaski, Wayne and McCreary counties. Between 2005 and 2009, the agency investigated 1,915 cases resulting in 771 arrests.
