Mobile Enforcement Teams: Response of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to Violent Crime in America

• NCJ Number: 155243
• Author(s): T A Constantine
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 8 pages
• Corporate Author: Drug Enforcement Admin
• Sale Source: Drug Enforcement Admin; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

This article profiles the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Mobile Enforcement Teams (MET's), which is a support service designed to help State and local police combat violent crime and drug trafficking in their communities.

Abstract

The MET's are tactical, quick-response teams. At the request of a police chief, sheriff, or district attorney, a MET will be deployed as a street-level enforcement team that will work in cooperation with local police to dislodge violent drug offenders from the community. In coordination with State and local agencies, a MET will conduct surveillance, collect intelligence, cultivate investigations, obtain indictments, and help with arrests before returning to its base-division. MET members are not homicide investigators. The MET's mission is to cultivate drug intelligence and investigations against violent offenders, and then share that information with State and local authorities to further their homicide cases and prosecutions. The MET initiative is needed because State and local law agencies have limited resources and because local law enforcement personnel are known by local narcotics users and sellers, making undercover buys and penetration of local distribution rings difficult and dangerous. This article discusses the mission, objectives, procedures, operations, structure, staffing, and training of MET's.