Cortland Mayor Brian Tobin. (Photo provided).
With regard to the City’s decision to end its involvement with the Drug Enforcement Agency task force:
This required a city police detective to leave the county frequently and for extended periods of time without local supervision. It has proven costly in terms of on duty staff time and money. Since it is the desire of city officials to aggressively fight the use of illegal drugs locally, by not renewing the MOU a detective in charge of drug investigations will go from being present part-time to full-time to better address local enforcement. This topic was brought to council several months ago to give plenty of time for consideration and discussion before a decision needed to be made.
The Drug Enforcement Agency is well funded and staffed, and will continue to do its work. The DEA will continue to support local efforts- there will be no loss of support for local law enforcement. Any implication that the city will be less prepared to fight drug abuse in our city is damaging to the reputation of the DEA and the city police department, and is inaccurate.
Mayor Tobin
