WHEREAS, federal programs designed to assist local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies have played a vital role in reducing the nation’s crime rate; and

WHEREAS, federal law enforcement agencies often have more resources available to direct at specific large-scale criminal drug organizations than state and local agencies and are increasingly sharing these resources at the local level; and

WHEREAS, federal law enforcement agencies in partnership with local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies are on the front lines in confronting the most powerful and sophisticated organized crime groups ever to challenge domestic law enforcement agencies, i.e., the international drug trafficking organizations and transnational gangs; and

WHEREAS, the problems presented by the unprecedented flow of drugs into this country by international criminal syndicates and transnational gangs continues to be a threat in most areas of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the number of arrests for drug abuse violations has been increasing (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, October 17, 2005); and

WHEREAS, the Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, 2005, indicates that as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the United States reported an increase of 2.5 percent from 2004 in the number of violent crimes (FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Preliminary Annual Report, June 12, 2006); and

WHEREAS, gangs are associating with organized crime entities, such as Mexican drug organizations, Asian criminal groups, and Russian organized crime groups (2005 National Gang Threat Assessment); and

WHEREAS, gang members are becoming more sophisticated in their use of computers and technology, and these new tools are used to communicate, facilitate criminal activity, and avoid detection by law enforcement (2005 National Gang Threat Assessment); and

WHEREAS, federal law enforcement investigative resources and technology are critical to the support of local, state, and tribal law enforcement efforts to combat transnational gangs and large-scale drug trafficking organizations; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED that the International Association of Chiefs of Police strongly urges Congress to fully fund all federal agencies involved in combating drug crime.