Sheriffs: Border Patrol death shows need for more Federal help
Posted: Dec 16, 2010 8:19 PM CST
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Sheriffs: Border Patrol death shows need for more Federal help
2:02
Reporter: Craig Smith
TOMBSTONE, ARIZ (KGUN9-TV)- Agent Terry's death is drawing sympathy from fellow law enforcement officers---and calls for action to prevent more killings.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu went to Cochise County Thursday to meet with Sheriff Larry Dever.
The two walked the streets of historic Tombstone. Even before the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry they often conferred on problems more modern, and difficult than frontier sheriffs faced---heavily armed smugglers.
Though Babeu's county is many miles from the border, he feels border problems as smugglers and bandits pass through Pinal County.
He says he has just begun a special enforcement push and when deputies intercept smugglers and bandits, he expects the bad guys to surrender, run, or point their guns at the deputies.
"And when they do that that's when there's gonna be a gunfight and this is gonna make national news. Its not designed to do that but it will because it's gonna underscore the fact that how has it been brought to this point in America that it's the job of the Sheriff to fight foreign cartels that are coming in here committing these crimes in our country."
Sheriff Deaver wants to see better fences, and more military on the border.
Reporter Craig Smith asked: "In the meantime while you're hoping for more Federal resources what can local authorities do what can state authorities do?"
Sheriff Deaver: "We're doing more than we should have to do and the day the border is secure, we hear bureaucrats in Washington say its more secure than ever things are better than they've ever been. We will tell them when that day arrives and we want to see institutional proof they're going to maintain that once its achieved."
Both Sheriffs say the Federal government is quick to cite statistics as proof the border is safer, but those stats gloss over the very human impact of deaths like Agent Terry's or the fear border residents feel.
http://www.kgun9.com/global/story.asp?s=13688862
