New methods to investigations; hunting down criminals

I have said before that drugs and stolen property often go together, and each time we serve warrants, or solve cases, that is proven over and over again to be true.

Recently, we have investigated a case that involved multiple suspects at different locations throughout the county. This investigation yielded not only one of the largest seizures of crystal meth in the county's history, but also one of the largest recoveries of stolen firearms.

We have investigators that are assigned to thefts and burglary cases, and deputies that are assigned to the CNET Drug task force that work as undercover agents on drug cases. We are always trying to improve the effectiveness of our investigations and one thing we have found is that by having the CNET agents and the investigators brief each other on cases, we often resolve the case even faster.

Investigating dugs is a different process than investigating stolen property or burglaries, and so it is easy for deputies assigned to each type of crime to follow their own trail and cases often do not mix until an arrest is made and both drugs and stolen property are found.

I have used the following quote from Abraham Lincoln before: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." We often get calls from people about stolen property within a week or two after a theft or burglary takes place.

Although there are times when a case can be closed this quickly, it is done with help from the owner when there is some type of information of "clues" the owner can give us. When investigating a case in which there are no initial leads to follow up on, an investigation can take time to complete.

Once investigators begin finding leads on a case, it can take time to put together all the facts, witnesses, physical evidence, and reports to make a good case. When I was in the police academy, one of my instructors said, "You can be the best road cop or investigator in the world, but if you write a bad report or do not put the facts together right, you have just lost the entire case!"

With drug investigations, we are also trying a new method of working from the middle of drug rings and working in two separate directions at the same time. In the past, the most common way of investigating drug cases was make a drug arrest from a traffic stop, tip, or undercover buy and "work your way up." In other words, trying to get the big fish.

What happens with this method however, is that you leave all the smaller dealers and users untouched. And guess how much methamphetamines are moved throughout a county by small dealers? A lot. By working both ways we not only focus on who each person bought their drugs from, but also who they sold them to.

We will continue to evaluate our work on investigations and try new ideas with one goal in mind: to constantly improve the service we can offer to the citizens of Vernon County and relentlessly hunt down those who commit crimes.