3.5. SR 10-17-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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*Item 3.5.* Et~ River Police Department MEMORANDUM TO: Pat Klaers FROM: Jeffrey A. Beahen, Chief of Police October 4,2005 DATE: SUBJECT: Request to purchase Clandestine Lab Equipment State legislation has recendy changed requiring that more of the responsibility of clandestine lab clean-up be shared with the communities in which the lab was found, and less with the Federally funded area wide-task forces. To facilitate this process, the legislation allows cities to receive restitution and clean-up monies when large labs are found. To further burden our resources, the Sheriff's Office pulled out of the Federally funded joint task force, and formed their own, self-funded narcotics team. This created a necessity that we send two officers to a Federal Clandestine Lab Clean-up School, as we are now responsible for our own lab issues. Sgt. Nierenhausen and Investigator Vita attended the training session, which was one week in length. Upon the completion of this school. Both officers were tasked with coming up with a minimum list of required protective gear that needs to be purchased to protect the two certified clandestine lab officers, and the SWAT team. We discovered in this recent training, that those officers who make the initial entry to the lab are the most at risk for exposure to toxic and hazardous chemicals. The impact of those exposures is just started to surface, as across the nation, many officers are reporting medical issues that are now being attributed to exposure during lab searches and arrests. To conform with all OSHA requirements and the mandates of the Federal government for clandestine lab seizures and clean-up, I am requesting permission to purchase the gear listed on the attached memo prepared by Sgt. Nierenhausen. There is sufficient funding in our forfeiture account to cover these expenses.