Area sheriff's departments receive grants

Two local sheriff's departments are receiving grants that will help fund overtime and other expenses so they may focus on certain aspects of law enforcement that sometimes get overlooked in the day-to-day pace of regular duties.

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department submitted its application for a DWI Enforcement grant administered as part of the Missouri Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Division, said Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson.

Also this week, the Scott County Sheriff's Department received for the first time a $10,000 endowment from the National Association of Drug Diversion, to be used in the ongoing battle against prescription drug abuse.

Cape Girardeau County has received the grant four years previously and will receive $8,390.76 in federal funds for added overtime hours so deputies can crack down on drunken driving, Dickerson said.

"It allows us to put officers on the streets above and beyond normal hours," she said.

The grant administrators will compile information telling officers in the county the highest percentage of alcohol related crashes have occurred in recent years, and those are the areas focused on, Dickerson said.

The funds received by Scott County will be split between overtime hours so investigators can work more of prescription drug cases, continuing education efforts involving health professions, educators and law enforcement, paying for controlled buys of prescription drugs so arrests can be made.

"We're very serious about doing what we can because of the problem with prescription drugs," said Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter.

The sheriff's department formed a prescription drug task force last year, with the Mississippi County Sheriff's Department, and along with Dr. Richard Logan, a Charleston, Mo., pharmacist and a reserve deputy for both departments, have hosted a series of "town meetings" to educate law enforcement and the public about the issue.

Scott County is the first Missouri law enforcement agency to be awarded these funds, stemming from restitution paid by a pharmaceutical company in an OxyContin lawsuit.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

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