SEWARD, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska sheriff’s decision to halt his department’s drug interdiction program was a political ploy to keep his election opponent from making advantageous headlines, the opponent said.
Sgt. Mike Vance is running to replace his boss, Joe Yocum, as sheriff of Seward county. Vance said he’s twice been recognized by the National Criminal Enforcement Association as one of the top six drug interdiction officers in the U.S. and Canada.
Putting the highway interdiction program on ice since May was just part of Yocum’s political strategy, Vance said.
“This is political, and I know it, but I’ll do what I have to do until the election,” Vance said.
Not so, Yocum said. He told the Lincoln Journal Star that a combination of citizen complaints about the interdiction traffic stops, the need for written policies and a shortage of deputies prompted him to suspend the program he started.
“They just can’t go out and sit on the interstate for hours and hours,” Yocum said of the deputies assigned program duties on Interstate 80. “We don’t have the staffing to be able to do that.”
Sheriff since 1999, Yocum said he’s modernized his department, in part by using confiscated drug money on new equipment and training.
Vance also noted how the seized drug money has helped the department, calling it “a resource that we’re not using.”
Deputies can still investigate if they suspect there are drugs in a vehicle they’ve stopped, Yocum said, but said he hasn’t been able to spare staff hours for the supplemental program since July.
Yocum is reviewing the draft procedures for interdiction work, which the county attorney’s office requested to meet liability concerns. If they’re approved and the department’s staffing situation has improved, the highway interdiction will resume, Yocum said.
Vance doubts that will happen soon.
“I’ve redone them (the procedures) three times, and we’re still not back out on the interstate,” the sergeant said.