Drug task force faces loss of federal funding

Federal funding for Montana drug task forces will be cut by about 57 percent next year, leaving law-enforcement leaders looking for other ways to keep up their work.

Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath said Monday that the cuts threaten the state's battle against methamphetamine.

Last year's $2.4 million federal Byrne grant was split among seven regional task forces and a statewide drug task force.

The Northwest Drug Task Force covers Flathead, Lake and Lincoln counties and the Salish-Kootenai Tribe.

Kevin Burns, director of the local task force, said it received about $363,000 from the grant last year. It was used primarily for salaries, he said, but also contributed to some training and overtime pay for officers, he said.

The drug team is composed of two officers in Lincoln County, four Flathead County sheriff's deputies, one Kalispell Police Department officer, one Whitefish Police Department officer, two tribal officers and one Lake County sheriff's deputy.

Cutting the fund "is going to deliver a pretty heavy blow," Burns said.

"We haven't been notified exactly what the cuts are going to be," he said.

The Montana Board of Crime Control, which administers the Byrne grant, is asking the Legislature to make up for a shortfall of about $1.1 million for the fiscal year that begins in July.

Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont said cutting money will likely mean eliminating some work on public drug education and rehabilitation.

Those are decisions that individual task forces will have to make, Dupont said. But the state itself will have to figure out some priorities too, he said.

"The state needs to re-evaluate the task forces it has - which are accomplishing the most in the state," he said.

"I think our task force has been one of the most successful in the state, if you base that on performance," Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner said.

The task force has been a powerful force in the police department's efforts to reduce drug trafficking, he said.

"We definitely wouldn't be able to do it at the level we do without the task force," Garner said.

"If the Legislature isn't able to fund [the grant shortfall], some places are going to try to find the necessary funds locally," Garner said.

He estimates that a 57-percent cut represents about $19,000 to the City of Kalispell.

"It's not like any of us has a surplus" in money, he said. His department already plans to ask for more officers this year.

"At what point does the well run dry?" he asked.

And yet the work of the task force is "some of the most important work we do."

In a press release Monday, McGrath said that with the current grant expiring in five months, "drug task forces are facing extinction."

Burns said he doesn't see it that fatalistically.

"I don't see our task force going away," he said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com