John Kroger, Oregon Attorney General
Oregon Attorney General John Kroger says he’s following a two-part strategy for fighting crime.
He’s going after Mexican drug cartels on the one hand, and on the other trying to improve the way Oregon treats drug addicts.
Eighty percent of property crime and the overwhelming majority of child abuse cases have a drug connection. So any anti-drug success would reduce crime and the state’s expenses, he said.
He cited a recent case that resulted in 34 indictments of Mexican nationals in Washington, Clackamas and Lane counties, most of them from the same village.
The case was significant because, using wiretaps, investigators developed it from one minor drug arrest in eastern Oregon, Kroger said. His implication: More investigations like that will follow.
On the treatment front, the AG hopes to lead an effort to figure out which of many diverse programs around the state get the best results and then ask the legislature in 2011 to follow through.
At the moment, Kroger said, no one knows how much the state is spending on drug treatment, or how well any of it works.
He also said he managed to continue, with federal funding, the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit in the Department of Justice, which the governor’s budget had failed to include.
The unit was started in 2005 and has prosecuted 107 cases for trying to lure under-age girls for sex.
The unit sometimes has investigators posing online, but it also responds once crimes have already been committed. Federal funding of $655,000 enables that work to continue for 18 months, according to Kroger.
Unlike some of his predecessors, Kroger has highlighted the crime-fighting aspect of his agency, which traditionally regarded itself more as a law firm advising state agencies.
OUR COMMENT – Drug treatment is the least expensive, most successful form of crime prevention.