County drug task force faces blind spot in Mukilteo

By Janice Podsada

Herald Writer

MUKILTEO — Drug dealers don’t respect city boundaries.

"They don’t know any jurisdictional limits, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart said. "Drug dealers go wherever they go."

That is why the Snohomish Regional Narcotics Task Force was formed 13 years ago to oversee drug enforcement efforts throughout the county.

Every city from Everett to Darrington, population 1,200, belongs — except Mukilteo.

"It helps when everybody is on board," said Pat Slack, task force commander.

Mukilteo, with a population of 18,340 people, has opted out for the past two years.

Mukilteo city administrator Rich Leahy said it’s because the city is financially strapped.

"We go through all our expenditures and prioritize them," Leahy said. "We look at it every year based upon the cost. If we don’t feel it’s worth it, it doesn’t go into the budget.

"Money has been such an issue that we don’t see any reason to increase taxes for such a thing."

It would cost $3,500 to join the task force, Slack said, adding, "It’s chump change."

In the coming weeks, the city council will review again whether to join the task force, city council Cathy Reese said.

"We are pretty lean in our police department, and we’re short four officers for a city our size. Nobody has the time or energy to direct toward this. The chief is pretty strapped.

"But $3,500 — it’s not really a lot of money." Reese acknowledged. "We’re looking at a city of 18,000 people that has three, hopefully four police officers on duty. We’re spread pretty thin here."

The purpose of the task force is to sniff out drug dealers, and share information and resources with law-enforcement agencies so local police don’t duplicate efforts or unknowingly confront one another in a dark alley.

Acting Edmonds Police Chief Greg Wean explained the benefits of membership this way, "The regional unit takes care of the entire Snohomish County area. They help us out.

"These (drug) labs that keep popping up — the task force has people that are equipped to handle them. If we ran into them we would call the task force," Wean said.

"The whole goal of the task force is to have everyone on board, so we can coordinate our efforts," said Bart, who directs task force activities. "It’s difficult for us to do that with Mukilteo when we don’t know what the hell they’re doing."

Mukilteo’s lack of participation has become an officer-safety issue, Slack said.

"When you have two sets of departments that wind up at the same house at the same time, you’ve got problems. They don’t know they’re on the same side. That’s when officers get shot.

"That hasn’t happened yet in Mukilteo," Slack said. "But why tempt fate?"

In the past year, Slack, county prosecutor Jim Krider, Everett police chief Jim Scharf and Bart have made written or in-person appeals to Mukilteo officials asking the city to join.

Mukilteo Police Chief Mike Murphy said the department’s reasons for not joining are "financial and other issues that I don’t care to go into right now."

"Just because we don’t belong doesn’t mean we don’t share information," Murphy added. "They let us know when they’re going to do a warrant, say. That way nobody is injured when someone calls to say they are busting down doors next door."

Whether Mukilteo benefited from its past association with the task force, Murphy couldn’t say.

"The argument from the task force is the people they are investigating are involved in multiple jurisdictions," Murphy said

"I’m not sure who should be funding something if it’s multi-jurisdictional. Maybe it should come from the state.

"(Snohomish County) that’s the jurisdiction it’s working. The task force is not here to serve Mukilteo or Edmonds or Lynnwood."

The large-scale drug cases in Mukilteo are referred to the task force, Murphy said.

But Slack said that hasn’t been the case. While the task force feeds information to Mukilteo police, they have not reciprocated.

"We get good response from the road officers, but the police chief isn’t working with us," he said.

"Every time we go down there, we call them. They assist us in every way they can. But general information and information about people they arrest — they’re not passing that on to us."

Slack met with Reese in June and gave her information packets for each council member and the mayor. They contained supporting documents from the prosecutor’s office, a list of dispatcher calls for drug complaints in Mukilteo, and a printout of city drug cases that had been referred to the prosecutor.

Reese told Slack that council members would review the information.

Slack offered to make a presentation to the council, but received no answer. In August, he received a letter from the city saying Mukilteo would not be joining the task force.

Reese said Murphy told council members not to join.

"Our chief did not recommend it for us at this time," Reese said.

The task force isn’t asking for "manpower" Slack said.

"Mukilteo has never provided us with manpower. We want better communication — so that officers don’t get hurt," he said. "I know they’re under a financial crunch there. But there are narcotics in Mukilteo, narcotics in the Mukilteo schools. They’re putting their heads in the sand by not sharing information with us," he said. Bart added, "The citizens of Mukilteo should know their city is not involved. It’s up to them to choose."

But Leahy said it’s a trade-off: what the city can and cannot afford to fund.

"We get 15 letters a day asking us to join this group or that," Leahy said. "Would we rather fund police services in the schools, more officers on the street or the task force?

"You have to make these decisions every year ."

You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.

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