Sheriff: Metro Narcotics Unit will return
By TIM GULLA Ledger Staff Writer tim@gaffneyledger.com

"You have to make changes and rotate people in and out. We may start this back up in the spring or summer." - Sheriff Bill Blanton

The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and Gaffney City Police Department will both keep their narcotics investigators working on ridding the streets of illegal drugs.

But the three officers from each department who had joined forces under the banner of the Cherokee Metro Narcotics Unit will have to work apart for the time being.

Sheriff Bill Blanton confirmed this week he pulled his officers out of the combined narcotics unit, which effectively disbanded it, but said the unit will make a comeback.

"You have to make changes and rotate people in and out," he said. "We may start this back up in the spring or summer."

Blanton said his three officers assigned to the Metro Narcotics Unit will continue to work on narcotics investigations for his office and that he'll likely assign a fourth officer to work with them until he makes decisions on further changes.

Blanton's decision came without much warning, according to Gaffney Police Chief John O'Donald.

"He (Blanton) called and said it would be restructured," O'Donald said.

O'Donald's three officers assigned to the unit were sent back to the Gaffney Police Department shortly thereafter. The Metro Narcotics Unit had been housed within the Sheriff's Office and the members from Gaffney Police Department worked out of the county agency's building.

"I thought everything was working well," O'Donald said Wednesday.

The relationship between Gaffney Police and Cherokee County Sheriff's Office has always been good, O'Donald confirmed. "I don't think it's anything personal."

O'Donald said his narcotics investigators still would continue their work. They had made six arrests in two days since the Metro Narcotics Unit was disbanded, he said.

Blanton said his decision was not unusual, as departments routinely rotate personnel.

"I've got lieutenants on the road who have been detectives before," he said. "I've got detectives who have been in narcotics before. You cross-train everybody."

Blanton also noted this is not the first time the Metro Narcotics Unit members parted ways.

The unit was formed in 1997 and it was seen as a way to knock down jurisdictional walls in the fight against drugs. Gaffney Police, for instance, are normally limited to matters within city limits but they could work countywide as members of the unit.

According to Ledger archives, the unit was scrapped in July 2000 after city officials opted out of the agreement, in part, because of dissatisfaction over how confiscated monies were divided between the police departments involved.

The city and county police agencies reformed the unit in 2003 after a new agreement was hashed out.

Blacksburg Police also were involved in the Metro Narcotics Unit, but Blacksburg has not had an officer assigned to it since its unit member, Al Phillips, was promoted to assistant chief at the end of 2006.

Besides narcotics, the Metro Narcotics Unit also investigates crimes involving pornography and prostitution.

"We'll start it back, for sure," Blanton said.