Posted: 10/7/04
Princeton Police Department to be part of new drug task force
By Joel Stottrup
The Princeton Police Department has the city's approval to once again be part of a multi-agency drug task force.
The City Council approved Police Chief Dave Warneke's request on Sept. 23 to be part of the North Central Drug Task Force that is to take effect Jan. 1. The other members will be the sheriff's departments in Mille Lacs and Kanabec counties and the Mille Lacs Tribal Police.
The council approved Princeton's membership for a one-year trial period and did not give Princeton the authority to commit any officers to full-time work for the task force.
Princeton formerly was part of the East Central Drug Task Force that had several counties, including Mille Lacs and Kanabec. Minnesota has quite a few drug task forces, according to Warneke.
The hope in organizing the new task force is to have staff that is devoted full time to the mission of dealing with drug crimes, said Warneke. "I hope Princeton can benefit," he said.
The joint powers agreement explains that the role of the task force will be to organize a group of local law enforcement officers to be available to assist in the investigating and solving of major drug crimes within the two-county area.
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren explained Tuesday that the drug task force officers will have their office in his office in Milaca. A full-time officer from the two sheriff departments and the Tribal Police will make up the task force and will assist regular investigators that are part of the Mille Lacs Sheriff's Department.
Princeton and the surrounding area have had their share of the methamphetamine manufacturing and sales problem that has been increasing in rural areas of the state the past several years. It was the Princeton Police Department, in fact, that last January apprehended a man who ended up pleading guilty to federal charges late last month of possessing 500 or more grams of meth with the intent to distribute.
Princeton police confiscated more than $117,000, plus meth from the vehicle that the suspect, Daniel Lee Dickenson, was driving. The department ended up getting to keep the extended cab pickup Dickenson was in and will sell it at an auction. It may also possibly share with the federal government in the proceeds of selling many other vehicles and some equipment that was later confiscated from Dickenson.
Lindgren this week explained some of the funding of the drug task force. It was set up so that the maximum Princeton will have to contribute in a year is much less than the other members in order to help the Princeton Police Department be part of the drug task force, said Lindgren.
Each of the drug task force members must initially contribute $1,500 to establish the drug task force's fund. The fund is to cover "reasonable and necessary operating expenses" and to acquire necessary equipment, the agreement reads. It also says funds could be used for training and the cost of tuition, travel, room and board for specialized training.
The agreement also states that in January of each year, each of the two member counties shall contribute an additional $1,500, or its proportionate share, to maintain the drug task force fund at $6,000 per year.
Also, each participating law enforcement agency will contribute towards a matching grant fund, not to exceed $3,000 for the city of Princeton and not to exceed $6,000 for the counties of Mille Lacs and Kanabec and the Mille Lacs Band.
Lindgren said the drug task force administrators can apply for a federal grant of up to $80,000 that would require a 25 percent match by the drug task force. The grant will probably be somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000, said Lindgren.
That is why the amount that any one member of the drug task force will contribute toward the grant is not yet determined, though there is a cap for what each contributes, said Lindgren.
It means that after Princeton makes its required contributions to the drug task force, including toward a grant in the first year, it will not pay more than a total of $4,500, Lindgren said.
The maximum amount for each of the other members, in comparison, is $7,500, he said.
Princeton Union-Eagle
P.O. Box 278
Princeton, MN 55371
Telephone: 763-389-1222
Fax: 763-389-1728