OTTUMWA —
Please tell your fellow Congressmen: Don’t make budget cuts without thinking first.
During a conference on Friday, Wapello County Sheriff Don Kirkendall, Ottumwa Police Chief Jim Clark and Sgt. Jason Bell, commander of the Southeast Iowa Inter-Agency Drug Task Force, and other law enforcement personnel said they have seen programs that really do curb crime.
So when political leaders talk about across-the-board budget cuts, public safety leaders get nervous.
“It makes no sense. Especially with a program that’s working, that people can see the results,” Kirkendall told U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack.
Loebsack said he agreed, adding he considers public safety to be a top priority and will take those concerns back to Washington.
“The funding constraints are real, and the public is right to care about the deficit,” he said. “But unthinking cuts aren’t [beneficial].”
That funding, said Clark, is critical now as an influx of gangs and drugs continues to pour into rural Iowa.
Ottumwa officers told the legislator Friday that they’re seeing more drugs, including a big jump in heroin, and more guns, including AK-47s, the fully automatic Soviet-designed assault rifle.
“You can’t believe how many guns we’re taking off these guys,” Bell said.
And yes, added a gang task force officer, that’s right here in Ottumwa.
“The problem I have in Congress is rural areas are largely overlooked,” said Loebsack. “When they hear of poverty, they think of the inner city. When they hear of the drug problem, they think of it as a big-city problem.”
Local officers said they knew their congressman had helped find appropriate funding, but at a time of deep budget cuts, they worry they won’t have the tools to do the job.
In some cases, they don’t, said Tom Rodgers, Ottumwa’s public information officer.
He assists the OPD by sharing information with the community. But not everything gets announced out loud. For example, Ottumwa’s SWAT unit, the “Emergency Response Team” has officers who buy equipment with their own money.
And these aren’t luxury items. Members dip into their own bank accounts to buy the rifle-resistant armored plates that attach to the pistol-resistant vests officers already wear.
They serve the arrest warrants on the most dangerous criminals, or enter a home where an out-of-control resident has guns in the house. More and more, though, officers are having to deal with the problems some legislators believe only exist in Chicago or Los Angeles.
“Gangs are leaving southern California and are coming to rural areas,” said Clark.
Gang officers said gang members see rural America as “safer” from the law but still a good market for drugs.
At the same time, local criminals are working to keep a step ahead of law enforcement. Police, politicians and farmers worked together to make it harder to steal farm chemicals used to make drugs. Yet while meth continues to come in from California and Mexico, manufacturing in Iowa continues.
“The most common method is what’s called ‘the shake ’n’ bake method’, [in which] you eliminate the need for anhydrous ammonia,” said Bell.
And there’s only so much rural and mid-sized cities can do — especially when the state is cutting back on its financial support, said Ottumwa City Administrator Joe Helfenberger.
He said he’s aware Congress doesn’t tell state lawmakers what to do, but as state funding dries up, Helfenberger said, those federal grants become even more important.
It’s too bad, said Kirkendall, that officials like Loebsack have to struggle against such odds to get funding to the places where it will do some good.
“They (lawmakers) don’t have a clue how beneficial that money can be in southeast Iowa,” he said.
Wapello County
July 28, 2012
Local law enforcement share concerns as funds shrink, rural crime rises
- Wapello County
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