Members of the Alliance Police Department and other nearby law enforcement agencies sat down with representatives of the FBI, DEA, US Attorney and Nebraska Attorney General offices to discuss the impact of methamphetamine on the area, and efforts to combat the problem.
Alliance Police Chief Phil Lukens told reporters during a break they look forward to being able to draw on enforcement resources from both the federal and state level to combat drugs in the community. “We need to be able to collaborate with each of these entities so that we can get the best possible outcome,” said Lukens. “There are certain individuals that are very dangerous to our community, I talk about that one to three percent. Those are the people we have to be taken out of circulation as they’re causing a major disruption to people’s lives, and that’s what we want to get stopped.”
Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said the intent of the collaborative training and information sharing is not meant to be a ‘one-time flash in the pan’ for local law enforcement. “We want you to understand, this is a statewide effort,” said Peterson, “and we want to get everyone engaged so that frankly, when you look at the map of Nebraska, there’s not one community that wouldn’t have the ability to take their law enforcement and really embrace the other support that we have through state and federal law enforcement.”
Education and treatment are also a part of the collaborative effort to eliminate the drug scourge, with Peterson noting there also needs to be more emphasis and funding for treatment to eliminate the demand that has led to drug cartel members moving into small communities across the state, exacerbating the problem.
