On Friday, Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford announced his plan to dedicate additional resources to tackle drugs and crime in the city. The plan will reallocate approximately $300,000 annually in city funding and personnel from Etowah County back to the Gadsden Police Department.

“A lot has changed in 20 years,” said Ford. “Gadsden taxpayers have been footing the bill for the county sheriff’s office while drugs continue to take lives and ruin families in Gadsden. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well, I’m stopping the insanity. We have got to clean up the streets of Gadsden! If funding the sheriff’s office can’t get the job done, we’ll do it ourselves.”

The Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit was formed in 2005 and consists of 12 agents from the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office, the Gadsden Police Department, and the FBI. Mayor Ford says he notified Etowah County District Attorney Jody Willoughby of his intent to terminate the city’s participation in the unit earlier this week, and that the city will continue to coordinate closely with the district attorney’s office on its drug cases.

In addition to supplying up to four full-time Gadsden Police Department employees to the county’s drug task force, the City of Gadsden’s $120,000 annual financial obligation to the unit equaled approximately one-third of the unit’s funding, which served the nine other participating cities that each pay amounts ranging from $1,700 to $20,000. These city employees and financial resources will now be dedicated to addressing drug cases and law enforcement within the city limits of Gadsden.

The reassignment comes on the heels of a recent meeting of the county’s municipal judges who discussed with mayors, legislators, and law enforcement leaders the rising costs of sending criminals to the jail operated by the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office.

Local judges and mayors acknowledged the sheriff’s monopoly on jail services is forcing them to decide between keeping criminals on the street or bankrupting the city’s finances.

“The crime problem in Etowah County is the sheriff’s concern,” said Ford. “I am responsible for the City of Gadsden. As long as I’m mayor, we’re going to dedicate every resource we have towards cleaning up the streets of Gadsden.