OPD steps up drug interdiction efforts
Olney Police have stepped up their drug interdiction activities recently, and Chief Dan Birbeck advised citizens to stay away from known drug users and dealers to “avoid the attention of law enforcement.”
As part of the Police Department’s commitment to combating narcotics use and trafficking in Olney, Officer Clayton Morris recently attended a specialized course in Dallas, Chief Birbeck said. This training informed Officer Morris of the latest trends and taught him law enforcement best practices in addressing narcotics-related activities, he said.
So far this year, Olney police have made twelve drug arrests, four of them in March, Chief Birbeck said. “One of the big topics that the City Council hired me for was to address drugs in the City of Olney,” he said in his March 22 briefing. “We have ebbed and flowed with the amount of pressure we put on different people that are participating in those illegal type activities and right now the pressure is back up. We are very aggressively looking at people who are involved in those types of activities.” He warned that people frequenting places where drug activity is taking place face intensified scrutiny and could be stopped for traffic violations. “If you don’t want to be looked at by law enforcement don’t associate with people who we know are actively involved in narcotics use.”
Young County law enforcement targets drug dealers and their associates through traffic stops, he said. “There are these people who we are repetitively dealing with getting paraphernalia off them and sometimes possession charges … and they cry foul whenever they get stopped or caught and wonder why officers are focusing on them,” he said. “I can’t tell officers not to enforce the law. And if they are making a traffic stop and something else leads them into asking for consent to search a vehicle … that is how this happens. So don’t be involved in those circles and you will avoid the attention of law enforcement.”
He also advised people who are trapping animals such as loose dogs and feral cats inside city limits to check with Animal Control Officer Hollie Hawkins before setting the trap if they would like assistance in transporting trapped animals to the shelter.
She is not available after 5 p.m. or on weekends, and traps must be checked every few hours to avoid injury to the trapped animals, he said. The City does not trap during rainy weather or extreme heat for the same reason, he said.
People who dump animals can be subject to a Class A misdemeanor, or a felony after multiple convictions of state animal abandonment laws, he said.
“If you are dropping cats off where you think there is a barn, if you are not contacting the property owner to make sure they are providing food and water for cats, technically that is animal abandonment,” he said. “Work with us. Contact the Animal Control Officer to set up the traps and the ACO will monitor them for you.”