County leaders eye joining multi-agency Drug Task Force

Commissioners take the first step in possibly joining the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force after reviewing options.

A shakeup in Polk County’s fight against drugs could be coming if the county’s elected officials are successful in their wish to join the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force.

The proposal to pursue joining the multi-agency task force was approved at a called meeting of the county commission on Tuesday, March 28, with each board member present voting to approve authorization to have Chairman Hal Floyd move forward with an intergovernmental agreement.

Floyd was the only commissioner unable to attend either in person or by conference call.

If the county does join the task force, which consists of law enforcement officers in both Haralson and Paulding counties, it would lead to the dissolution of the Polk County Drug Task Force, which is made up of officers from the county police, sheriff’s office, Cedartown police and Rockmart police. It has been in place in its current form since 2013.

Polk County would have to be accepted by the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force executive board first before moving forward with the process of dissolving its task force and then going through the process of selecting the county’s representatives on the new task force.

Each county currently has four members in the Haralson-Paulding task force, with each one continuing to serve their respective agencies.

Polk County Commissioner Ray Carter extensively discussed the issue during last week’s meeting, saying that the possibility of rejoining the HPDTF came about through discussions by the county’s finance committee in an effort to strengthen its resources to fight the rising drug problem.

The Georgia Department of Public Health Northwest Health District reported recently that Polk County is one of the leading counties in the region for

opioid-overdose deaths.

Carter provided statistics at last Tuesday’s meeting showing a sharp increase in overdose deaths and emergency room visits connected with drug use over the last three years, which is not uncommon for the rest of the state.

He said the move is not a comment on the work the Polk County Drug Task Force has done, but came through the process of evaluating what the county could do to help law enforcement fight the ongoing local drug problem.

“We’ve got good folks on there, doing a good job. I really don’t have complaints over the job they’re doing, and we don’t get complaints over the job they’re doing. But saying that, we don’t get complaints because I don’t think any of us have established nor do we know of specific measures of success,” Carter said.

Carter said joining the HPDTF gives Polk County agencies a partnership with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that brings additional resources, training opportunities and more partners to help combat ongoing drug issues in this area of Northwest Georgia.

“It is a GBI commanded, GBI trained and GBI operated task force,” Carter said. “They were anxious of what we could bring to the table as well. There’s a lot of activity that happens between these three counties. We have a lot of geography, a lot of shared roads, a lot of overlaps in communities.”

Carter said city leaders have been involved in the meetings discussing the drug task force and had been informed about the possibility of joining the HPDTF.

“We’ve involved their chiefs. We’ve involved their city managers. And I don’t know what communications they’ve had with their elected officials. But certainly if we move forward, I think we would want to pose that invitation to them to join us in this effort going forward,” he said.