Restoring Proactive Drug Enforcement in Arenac County

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) solicits applications for initiatives which assist law enforcement in rural states and rural areas. The program helps rural states and rural areas to prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs.

The Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program, administered by BJA, helps rural states and rural areas prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs. In addition, priority consideration will be given to local law enforcement agencies in rural areas where the unit of local government is not eligible to receive a direct allocation from the Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program or received a direct allocation that was $50,000 or less. Applicants were invited to submit a proposal under any one of the following categories to: (1) combat rural crime; (2) improve rural law enforcement investigations; (3) enhance rural detention and jail operations; (4) facilitate rural justice information sharing; or (5) develop a national training and technical assistance program.

Under Category 2, the Arenac County Sheriff's Office will use the grant funds to support their 'Restoring Proactive Drug Enforcement in Arenac County' project to restore a full-time police officer position that was assigned to the Strike Team Investigative Group (STING) and eliminated due to budget cuts in 2002. STING provides narcotics/criminal investigations coverage to participating members within a six county region, including Arenac County. The county has been unable to assign an officer to the drug team and has not had an advanced undercover narcotics/criminal presence working in the county since 2002. Arenac County is a rural area with 17,271 residents and 47.1 residents per square mile according to the 2000 census. The county has many areas of forest, state, and farm land that are isolated areas for cultivation of marijuana and drug manufacturing labs. Arenac County is the gateway for drug trafficking to northern Michigan from major cities, such as Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, and Bay City due to I-75 and US-23 running through the county. The goals and objectives of the project are to hire a police officer to be assigned to STING, reduce the number of drug houses and drug overdoses, monitor drug activity/reduce criminal activity while assisting other agencies within their jurisdictions, and reduce drug trafficking, illegal drugs in the school districts, and the cultivation of marijuana on public and private lands.

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