Evaluation of MS

1
Evaluation of MSs Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task
Force Program

• Innovative Approaches to Drug Control

2
War on Drugs

• Victory remains elusive
• 2000 UCR
• 1.5 million state and local drug arrests
• Increase of 500,000 arrests from 1990
• Drug violations largest offense category for all
  arrests in 2000
• Traditionally an urban phenomenon

3
Mississippi

• Very rural
• 11 of 82 counties located in metro area
• Impoverished
• 17 live below poverty level
• National level is 11
• Conservative, religiously fundamentalist
• Uneducated
• Unemployed

4
Drugs Prosperity

• 2000 arrest rate for drug violations was 100
  increase from 1995
• Economic prosperity in casinos
• boomtown effect
• Drugs one added bonus
• Rural nature of state makes trafficking and
  production easy

5
MJDTF

• Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force
• Formed by state and local units of government
  combining resources to control drug trafficking
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 made this possible
• Participating agencies contribute personnel and
  resources to control drug distribution
• Program also aims to improve public perception of
  drug enforcement efforts in community

6
Evaluation

• Outcome assessment was employed
• 2 primary research questions
• 1. To what extent is the drug task force meeting
  its goals?
• O the data reflect substantial progress toward
  the stated objectives?

7
MJDTF Arrest Dispositions

• Randomly sampled 4 jurisdictions
• Units must have been operating for at least 5
  years
• Randomly select 50 files beginning at 1993,
  ending in 1997
• If 50 cases hadnt been processed then all
  records were reviewed
• 455 total records were reviewed

8
Sample Characteristics

• Males accounted for 87.6 of drug arrests in MS
• Lacks represented 73 of drug arrests
• Mean level of education was 11.29 years
• 52 unemployed

9
Conviction Disposition Findings

• Vast majority of cases led to prosecution and
  conviction
• Only about 10 of cases not prosecuted
• 3.5 ended in acquittal
• 95.5 ended in conviction

10
Focus Group Analysis

• Final portion of evaluation summarized
  information gathered from 4 focus groups
• Personnel forming focus groups represented each
  of the 4 geographic regions in MS
• North, South, East, West
• Audiotaped meetings

11
Focus Group Findings

• Report identified critical elements for
  successful task forces
• Written interagency agreements
• Prosecutor involvement
• Computerized information databases
• Budgeting
• Staffing recruitment
• Monitoring evaluation

12
Inter-Task Force Communication

• Task forces not well informed about activities of
  other task forces
• Ineffective communication with MS Bureau of
  Narcotics
• Personality driven
• Unsatisfactory experiences in communication
  between Task Force officers and Bureau

13
Recruitment Training

• High turnover rates in Task Forces
• Dangerous
• Difficult
• Lack of communication
• No incentives to remain in Task Force
• No standardization of documentation