Millions in drug seizures fund Richland Police

Since 2006, the city of Richland has used money seized from drug forfeitures to fund the police department. Most recently, the seized money helped the town build a $4.1 million police department, according to Richland Mayor Mark Scarborough.

"This program has been very, very successful in Richland and the main reason is the officers in that program and the fact that our chief has fine tuned this interdiction unit," Scarborough said Monday. "That's been our success. The board and myself just made available the funds to get this started. The city of Richland has been rewarded time and time again by these officers out there."

The drug interdiction unit has four officers. In the last nine years, those officers have seized an "amazing amount" of drugs, cash and property, Scarborough said. That money has allowed the department to solely fund a new training facility and a new fleet of police cars. Comingling the funds with other city departments is forbidden under state law, he said.

The city, through a lease purchase agreement with a bank, made a one million dollar down payment on the building and plans to pay off the remaining balance in "two and a half to three years," Scarborough said.

The funds are in place, he said, but the city wanted to maintain "a safety net."

"We had 3.1 million in our drug seizure account plus some undeclared funds but we didn't want to talk all of it at one time," Scarborough said.

While the seizures have allowed the city to free up money for other department, Scarborough said the financial benefits are an added bonus.

"The key is getting the drugs off the streets," he said.

Noting the involvement of statewide drug agencies over the years, Scarborough said, "It's been a win win win for a number of government entities but we're not just taking cash and seizing vehicles. The numbers of cocaine and crack and marijuana that's been seized has been unreal."

This story is developing. Check www.clarionledger.com for updates.

Contact Sarah Fowler at sfowler@gannett.com or (601) 961-7303. Follow @FowlerSarah on Twitter.