1. What is your opinion on the Ozark Drug Enforcement Team's effectiveness in Barry County?

The ODET currently has little effect directly in Barry County. They have most likely been able to slow
some of the import of narcotics into the county though aggressive enforcement in one of the main hubs,
that being the I-44/I-49 corridor; however, that seems to have left the back door open for import of
narcotics into the county through Springfield and surrounding states, with the Hwy 60/Hwy 37 corridor.
Those who distribute narcotics in our county do not stop at the county line, and maintain associations
with distributors in other areas. The effective enforcement of the sale of narcotics has to be a regional
approach with constant information sharing among agencies, and well as constant training and
education on new trends and drugs.

2. Should we leave an officer in ODET, or should we end our involvement? Why?

Barry County should work on providing a local officer to ODET, or other functioning task force, to work
side by side with them, and act as a liaison for our local area. The County needs to retain some form of
association with a task force, to help bring in needed funding, training, man power and expertise in
handling hazardous materials, and the safe destruction of those materials; as well as the ability to
pursue charges and forfeitures through federal court for criminals found to be distributing narcotics to
our children, or quantities of narcotics throughout the community. The availability of state grants to
fund small local task forces has become more and more competitive and harder to obtain. The state
looks more favorable on areas who gather together many agencies in a regional area to combat the
larger area problem. I will work on not only strengthening our ties and relationships with some form of
a regional task force, but also in better training our local officers in the effective enforcement of
narcotics cases. I will further communicate our needs with our local and surrounding area state
representatives responsible for funding the task force efforts.
3. Whether in ODET or not, would you create dedicated drug enforcement officers within the Barry
County Sheriff's Office? If so, how would the office be restructured to allow for dedicated drug
enforcement officers? If not, why?
Many of the concerns of the citizens of Barry County, and rightfully so, have been the distribution and
consumption of narcotics, especially to our children. With this being a major concern, additional
manpower would be directed to work on combating the problem, while communicating the
understanding that some other minor offenses would have to take a back seat during increased
enforcement efforts. All the officers will receive additional training in the recognition of narcotics
activities and offenders. With the implementation of modern mobile technology, information can be
made more readily available to officers working the road. Officers will be encouraged to aggressively
work narcotics cases in the county, de-conflict those cases for officer safety, and share narcotics
information with the assigned ODET, or other task force, representatives, allowing for better
communication between departments and linking of criminal activities from other areas. The evening
and overnight shifts specifically will be re-organized to provide safer and more effective narcotics
investigations and enforcement. Education programs for our children will be evaluated and exposure to
our local officers by students in the schools will be increased. I applaud schools who seek out the
employ of a school resource officer to provide the students with daily exposure to a law enforcement

officer. If the students and officer are able this way to build a trusting bond, the students will be more
likely to absorb the information provided and feel comfortable talking to the officer and reporting
offenses observed. That same approach can be directed to the citizens of Barry County, where we will
focus more on community policing made possible through better time management and the time
savings developed through increased mobile technology. Education and aggressive enforcement of the
laws will help curb the problems associated with narcotics abuse in our county.