Those wanting to commit crimes or deal drugs in St. Albans need to think otherwise because there is a new law enforcement unit in town.
For the past year, the St. Albans Police Department has been working on implementing a new task force called the Special Enforcement Unit (SEU) to help fight crime in the city.
The way this unit differs from other units at the department is the officers will be dressed in plain clothing and drive unmarked cars in hopes of blending in, which is difficult for marked cruisers to do.
“We would get complaints on the street and the minute a marked unit was on the block the people we were looking for would see us before we’d see them,” said St. Albans Police Department Lt. Marc Gilbert. “Now we are hoping to be able to get out ahead of the marked units, potentially watch things happen prior to their arrival and be able to affect an arrest.”
A recent drug bust by the unit in St. Albans on January 18th that recovered $8,700 worth of drugs and money has spearheaded the new effort in town. The unit also had another drug bust earlier in the month.
But Gilbert, who is unit commander, clarifies this is more than just a drug task force.”It’s more of a unit designed to focus on all crimes,” Gilbert.
In addition to working undercover, the SEU will also support patrol officers, be available extra manpower for major cases and take part in traffic enforcement, among other things.
“We are not changing what we do,” said Gilbert. “It’s just going to be a wardrobe change from time to time.”
Gilbert adds that a lot of criminals and drug dealers are hiding out in smaller towns such as St. Albans and South Charleston thinking they can avoid getting caught and this is a way to catch those criminals and keep the community safe.
“We want to get back to where people in the City of St. Albans can sit on their front porches in the evening without concerns of people dealing drugs or drive-by shootings or just public nuisances,” said Gilbert. “We want to give people their quality of life back.”
The department hopes to have full implementation of SEU for it to have a total of three officers by March.
Gilbert advises criminals to find another town to hide out in.