Reading and other Pennsylvania cities struggling with drug-related crime are likely to get a boost after state lawmakers approved funding for Attorney General Kathleen Kane's proposed Mobile Street Crimes Unit.
Kane asked for $2.8 million to pay for a specialized force of investigators that would be deployed temporarily in individual cities to work with police in battling drug-trafficking organizations. In the 2013-14 state budget approved Sunday, the attorney general received $2.5 million for the new effort.
A Kane spokesman on Tuesday declined comment.
Reading Police Chief William M. Heim said he met with Kane last week and discussed the concept. It could be a good one for the city, Heim said.
He planned to talk with Kane again about customizing the effort to complement the city's current crime-reduction strategies.
Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams, who already has a dedicated narcotics unit at work in the county, said, "Any additional resources that we can find, I am sure we can put to positive use."
According to a newspaper report in Hazleton, Luzerne County, that city will be the first where the unit is deployed. In a June interview with the Reading Eagle, Kane said Reading would be among the top cities considered for deployment.
The Luzerne region has been hit by an onslaught of issues related to gangs and drugs, said State Sen. Judy Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat.
Schwank, who supported Kane's efforts to win funding for the new unit, recalled the Route 222 Corridor Anti-Gang Initiative that began in 2006. It was supported by $2.5 million in federal funding and supported law enforcement collaboration in Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Lancaster and York.
"We were at the forefront of the problem," she said. "The problem hasn't gone away."
In the June interview, Kane said drug traffickers have made Reading a gateway city for the Pennsylvania drug trade because it is close to highways, set in a rural area and has a diminished police force. Authorized police manpower in the city has declined in recent years from 215 officers to 168.
State Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat, said it was unlikely that Gov. Tom Corbett would "blue line," or eliminate, the new funding for the unit.
Copyright 2013 - Reading Eagle, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
