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Drug task force looks to Warren to add
officer
By JOE GORMAN Tribune
Chronicle
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WARREN - As the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office and Howland police add
members to the Trumbull Ashtabula Group drug task force, TAG commander Lt.
Jeffrey Orr wonders if Warren will follow suit.
Orr said the six-member group - four of whose members are from Trumbull
County - are short on manpower and need help. Additionally, he said Warren
is the largest city in the county, so to have someone from the police
department full time on the task force would be a big help.
Warren Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin said he wants to assign at
least one member of the department to the task force, but has been hampered
because of layoffs this past year.
But Franklin said he wants to see if he can rework staffing levels so he can
have an officer assigned to the task force.
''We're trying to adjust our manpower situation to hopefully assign a
full-time person to the task force,'' Franklin said.
He said he realizes the task force does a lot of work in Warren, which he
said is one of the reasons he is looking for someone from the city to be
assigned full time to the task force.
Forty employees, including 20 officers and 11 firefighters, were laid off
Jan. 1 to trim a $3.2 million general fund budget shortfall.
City officials also spoke last year of regional cooperation, and Franklin
said the task force is a perfect example of an agency that operates on a
regional basis.
TAG works in both Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, but recently made
headlines for a series of drug raids Nov. 27 in which about 100 police from
13 different agencies raided homes in five separate locations in Warren. And
earlier this month, TAG members serving a search warrant in Johnston
unearthed a bunker that had several marijuana plants growing inside.
Sheriff Thomas Altiere said he decided to add an extra person to the task
force because of TAG's workload.
''They have a lot of work to do, and they needed the help,'' Altiere said.
The sheriff's office now has three deputies assigned to the task force,
Altiere said.
Howland police Chief Paul Monroe was out of the office and could not
immediately be reached for comment on why he decided to add an officer to
the task force.
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