Gadsden leaving Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit

The City of Gadsden is staking its own path on controlling crime and illegal drugs in the city.

Mayor Craig Ford announced on Aug. 23 that the city is terminating its participation in the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit. Instead, Gadsden will reallocate $300,000 in annual resources to the Gadsden Police Department to help it focus on law enforcement and, in particular, fighting drugs within the city.

According to a news release from the city, the move follows a recent meeting of Etowah County’s municipal judges who discussed with mayors, legislators and law enforcement leaders what they see as the rising costs of sending prisoners to the county detention center, which is run by the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office.

Under the most recent agreement between Gadsden and Etowah County, approved in July 2023, the city paid a flat rate of $50 a day to house prisoners in the county jail. That agreement expired on Aug. 1, although it contained renewal options.

Gadsden had participated in the DEU throughout its 20-year history. It consisted of officers from the Gadsden Police Department, the sheriff’s office and the FBI.

Ford said he notified District Attorney Jody Willoughby earlier this week about his intention to pull out of the unit, and stressed that Gadsden police will continue to work closely with Willoughby’s office on drug cases.

Gadsden had provided as many as four full-time officers to the DEU, according to the release, along with a $120,000 annual financial contribution, which city officials contend provides roughly a third of the unit’s annual funding, while other participating municipalities pay much less.

“A lot has changed in 20 years,” Ford said in the release. “Gadsden taxpayers have been footing the bill for the county sheriff’s office, while drugs continue to take lives and ruin families in Gadsden.

“They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” he said. “Well, I’m stopping the insanity. We have got to clean up the streets of Gadsden. If funding the sheriff’s office can’t get the job done, we’ll do it ourselves.”

According to the release, judges and mayors during that recent meeting said the sheriff’s “monopoly on jail services” has them looking at a choice between “keeping criminals on the street or bankrupting the city’s finances.”

“The crime problem in Etowah County is the sheriff’s concern,” said Ford. “I am responsible for the City of Gadsden. As long as I’m mayor, we’re going to dedicate every resource we have towards cleaning up the streets of Gadsden.”

Sheriff Jonathon Horton in a phone interview said he hated to see Gadsden pull out of the DEU because it’s been a longtime collaborative agency, but said the unit will continue to “work drugs countywide.”

Horton estimated 98% of the drug cases it handles are in Gadsden, because “narcotics don’t follow lines” and because it’s natural that people would go to the county’s largest municipality to conduct drug transactions.

Horton, who said he was an original member of the DEU (as was its commander, Kevin Hassell) when it was launched in October 2004, stressed that other county municipalities remain committed to the unit, and noted that Rainbow City and Southside recently joined.

As for the jail costs, he said, “That’s between the city and the County Commission. The sheriff’s office runs the jail, but the County Commission funds it.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Gadsden leaving Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit