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Please describe how your agency currently addresses this situation. <br /> The Decatur Police Department's Street Crimes Unit conducted 450 narcotic search warrants in 2003, <br /> 2004, 2005; seizing 2,390 grams of crack cocaine, 14,092 grams of powder cocaine, 288,806 grams of <br /> cannabis, 1,033 grams of heroin, 1,716 grams of ineth, and 162 firearms. The Decatur Police <br /> Department made 710 drug related arrests in 2004 and 693 drug related arrests in 2005. <br /> A senior street crimes detective, Detective Carl Carpenter has been recently named the departments' <br /> Gang Officer. He is currently compiling gang information on a daily basis and has a great deal of <br /> knowledge on Decatur gangs. <br /> In recent years, the department has found it very difficult to staff extra patrols due to overtime budget <br /> restraints and lack of interest from the officers. <br /> Please describe the availability of current resources to meet the need you have identified. <br /> Patrol shift staffing levels are normally at a minimum. Patrol officers are constantly busy on Calls for <br /> Service and simply do not have the freedom to conduct proactive patrols while working their shift. The <br /> officers respond to shooting details but are not afforded the opportunity to prevent these violent <br /> incidents. Our overtime budget is consistently over the allotted budgeted amount. When overtime is <br /> granted, it has been difficult to find qualified officers to work overtime to properly address the gang <br /> violence issues. Using mandatory hire backs leads to low morale among the officers and low activity <br /> levels of the officers working the hire backs. <br /> 3 <br />