As a local chief of police and president of the Lake County Law Enforcement Chiefs Association, I would like to correct some inaccurate statements that have been made during the current campaign for Lake County Sheriff.

One of the candidates for this office, Francisco Rivero, has publicly stated and promised that he will “reinstate the Drug Task Force eliminated by the current sheriff.” Mr. Rivero has repeated this claim in written campaign literature that is being mailed to Lake County voters.

With all due respect to Mr. Rivero, these statements are false in every respect and I urge him to discontinue making them.

The currently serving sheriff, Rodney Mitchell, did not eliminate our local drug task force. Instead, the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement (BNE) decided to withdraw from our local task force.

The reason given in a detailed letter from BNE was a $12 million budget shortfall and the loss of 80 narcotics agent positions statewide.

In addition, no elected sheriff has the authority to bring BNE back until they decide they are financially able to return, and Deputy Rivero knows or should know this. Any promise to bring them back is misleading as BNE has already promised to return when their budget will support it.

As a local chief of police, I have been a member of the Narcotics Task Force Executive Board since 2006 and was present when Sheriff Rodney Mitchell worked tirelessly to get assistance from state officials to bolster the funding for BNE so that they could continue participation in our task force.

On April 2, 2009, a factual article about BNE’s withdrawal from the Lake County Narcotics Task Force appeared in a local news story. The facts are as true today and can be viewed with the following link, http://lakeconews.com/content/view/8003/919/ .

Most importantly, Deputy Rivero's statement implies that a local drug task force no longer exists. The Lake County Sheriff's Department, along with some other local agencies, still has full-time staff assigned to drug enforcement, and the efforts of these hard working officers should be acknowledged rather than minimized.

Chief Kevin Burke of Lakeport Police is president of the Lake County Law Enforcement Chiefs Association.