BANGOR – City leaders have a message for their federal counterparts: They can’t do it alone.

Concerned about the implications of a major cut in funding for drug enforcement activities, Bangor city councilors during a meeting this week unanimously adopted a resolve calling upon the federal government to increase funding for the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.

Funding for the federal anti-drug program recently was slashed from $520 million to $170.4 million.

“This has some very serious implications for the state of Maine and the city of Bangor,” said Councilor Hal Wheeler, who was so strongly opposed to the cut that he read the entire resolve into the public record.

According to Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno, the city now provides three police officers to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, one of whom is supervisor of MDEA’s Bangor field office and the other two of whom are special agents.

“One of the downsides about how this agency is run is that it’s almost entirely funded by the [Byrne grant]. In other words, the state of Maine contributes very little to the operation of this agency,” he said.

“Obviously, a 67 percent reduction in funding, if there is no other alternate source of funding, really means this agency will close its doors,” he said. “They’re really down to bare minimum numbers now.”

Though he had only estimates, Arno said that in 1990, the MDEA had about 100 agents. Today, the total is about half that.

“We’re really at a point in time where we should be talking about increasing this agency’s size, not decreasing it,” he said. If allowed to stand, the funding cut will have “a tremendous impact, not just locally but also statewide.”

That’s in large part because of the nature of drug investigations, Arno said. “They’re hardly ever confined within the city limits of [any one city or town], so a coordinated drug effort statewide is really imperative.”

Councilors needed little convincing.

“Every aspect of life you will ever touch is directly related in some way to the drug addictions that are happening out there,” said Councilor Patricia Blanchette, who as a state representative from Bangor serves on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

She said that drug problems lead to social costs, court costs and incarceration costs, to name a few – problems she said affect far more people than the 3,000 killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“I’ll tell you, ladies and gentlemen, 3,000 people a day are killed maimed or disfigured by crack [cocaine] and [methamphetamines] every day in this country. It is no small problem. It’s nothing you could afford to ignore,” she said.

While she thought a resolve was helpful, she urged councilors also to call members of the state’s congressional delegation to let them known that “my community, my state, cannot survive without this these funds. You have no idea what we’re dealing with.”

“These people are so sneaky,” she said of drug dealers. “The Bangor Police Department cannot do it alone because they’ll operate in Bangor one day and they’re in Ellsworth the next. They’re a moving target.”

Blanchette said the MDEA, administered by the state Department of Public Safety, “is being stripped to the bone because of these cuts.” She said the city could lose its D.A.R.E. officer because of the funding loss.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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