A tentative proposal from the Carroll County Commissioners to add themselves and Westminster's mayor and council to the advisory board that oversees the county drug task force has been met with a near-unanimous cold shoulder.
Sheriff John Brown is so strongly opposed that he said he would consider removing his department if elected officials are added to the board that oversees task force operations.
"They have no expertise in law enforcement. It would be like you going over and saying you have an idea how to do neurosurgery," he said.
Westminster Mayor Kenneth A. Yowan and State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes say they will oppose the plan at a Feb. 27 meeting scheduled by the commissioners to discuss the advisory board, which includes representatives from the state police, sheriff's department, city police and state's attorney's office.
Commissioners Donald I. Dell and W. Benjamin Brown declined yesterday to give their opinions on the proposal, which was contained in a Jan. 24 letter to Mr. Barnes.
The letter, which also proposed adding the police chiefs of Hampstead, Manchester, Taneytown and Sykesville as nonvoting members of the advisory board, was signed only by Mr. Dell.
Commissioner Richard T. Yates said he hasn't studied the question and does not recall seeing a letter that mentioned expansion of the advisory board.
Mr. Dell said the proposal was based on a consensus of the commissioners. He said the proposed changes grew out of a staff study ordered by the previous board of commissioners to clarify the task force's operating agreement.
Mr. Barnes said the task force "doesn't need to be politicized . . . It's a law enforcement endeavor."
The state's attorney, who took office Jan. 3, has been changing some of the task force's practices. He has separated the forfeiture of assets, a civil procedure, from criminal charges to avoid possible conflict in buybacks, where an accused person is offered a cash settlement before a forfeiture suit is filed. Mr. Barnes said he is also reviewing all seizures.
Some of the task force's practices under former State's Attorney Thomas E. Hickman were sharply criticized by civil libertarians, defense attorneys and appellate judges.
Critics have pointed to cases such as the seizure of a $22,000 truck owned by a Gettysburg College student after a state trooper found a small amount of marijuana in the truck owner's socks.
Mr. Barnes said he has been working on a draft agreement he described as a standard state police drug task force guideline. He said the document would require an annual audit of the force's finances and would make the force accountable to the county for its operating budget.