KALAMAZOO -- Faced with declining resources and fewer officers from other
police departments, the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team will focus its
efforts more in the city of Kalamazoo and scale back operations in Portage
and other parts of the county, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Chief
Jeff Hadley said Thursday.

It was originally conceived as a regional drug team, but Hadley noted that
only one agency other than Public Safety now contributes personnel to the
unit. The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office has two deputies assigned to the
team but is expected to withdraw one of them in the next few months.

``As far as the participation from the township and Portage, I know Chief
(Richard) White is working within his own resources to deal with some of the
issues they have in Portage,'' Hadley said. ``Obviously with the township
being a smaller agency, sacrificing one officer just isn't a reality for
Chief (Tim) Bourgeois. I took the approach of appreciating and respecting
that, but we have some issues we need to deal with in the city, and we're
going to try to refocus some of our efforts with KVET on our city
neighborhoods and neighborhood problems.''

Formed in 1991 in response to a crack-cocaine epidemic, KVET originally was
staffed by officers from Public Safety, the sheriff's department, Kalamazoo
Township, Portage and Western Michigan University.

In the next few months, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller plans to
pull one of his deputies out of KVET and assign him to his depleted road
patrol.

``We haven't really worked out the logistics of any changes at KVET, but I
know he has interest in protecting his citizens and taking care of
situations that have arisen in the last year, so this is one of the options
he is exploring,'' Fuller said. ``I support Chief Hadley in what he is
trying to do. He has a difficult situation, and it's going to take all of us
working together to try to get through some of these problems.''

In Portage, White said officers within his agency who have been assigned to
KVET in the past are becoming more active in drug investigations that in the
past were ``automatically turned over'' to KVET or the Michigan State Police
Southwest Enforcement Team. And even with the change, White said, Portage
police and KVET are regularly sharing information about drug investigations
and, if needed, his agency can easily ask for assistance from Public Safety.

KDPS Capt. Joseph Taylor, the commander of KVET, said his unit is
investigating drug tips from the city and the county, not including Portage
and Kalamazoo Township. Tips from those jurisdictions are being forwarded to
their respective police departments or to the Michigan State Police
Southwest Enforcement Team. Despite the changes, Hadley said KVET will still
assist other jurisdictions, as needed, on undercover drug investigations.

Hadley said the change will allow KVET to focus its drug-enforcement efforts
within city neighborhoods and, along with Public Safety's Criminal
Investigations Division and Community Policing Unit, its members will
provide staffing to patrol city streets to help reduce youth violence.