PAYING REWARDS HELPS CATCH CRIMINALS

With Missouri having gained the undesirable reputation of ranking second only to California in illegal methamphetamine production -- and possibly first in the number of discovered labs, state lawmakers are scurrying to introduce legislative proposals aimed at cracking down on meth-lab operations.

Clearly, something must be done to deter production of this highly addictive drug, most of which comes from clandestine labs operated in homes and abandoned buildings in rural areas of Southeast Missouri.

Rep. Patrick Naeger, R-Perryville, is among sponsors of a bill that would authorize the state to pay bounties for tips leading to the destruction of meth labs and the arrests and convictions of lab operators. The bill would provide $4 million a year for bounties over the next three years. The measure proposes $10,000 bounties, but sponsors say they aren't married to that amount.

All one must do is look at the success of Cape Girardeau's Crime Stoppers program to realize that the bounty bill is a good one. Crime Stoppers is working: Only seven months into the program, anonymous tips have helped solve 11 crimes, and 55 calls have been made to the hotline number. More than $2,500 has been paid out the past seven months.

In Paducah, Ky., where Crime Stoppers has existed for 10 years, the numbers are equally impressive. Since its inception there, 3,175 tips have been made from anonymous informants, resulting in 890 arrests, 595 of which were for felonies.

There is no reasonable argument against offering bounties to those who provide information on methamphetamine labs. Since it helps local authorities solve crimes that might otherwise go unsolved, offers of rewards to those who provide information on meth labs will lead to the shutting down of labs that might otherwise continue to operate.

Nevertheless, some Democrats in the Bootheel -- where so much of the meth is being made -- are opposed to the bounty idea. Reps. Joe Heckemeyer of Sikeston, Larry Thomason of Kennett and Marilyn Williams of Dudley argue that the offering of bounties would only reward criminals. So they are sponsoring legislation that seeks to regulate the purchase of over-the-counter medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Their proposal would require anyone who sells more than 25 grams of pseudoephedrine to demand that the customer show photographic identification and sign a form containing a wealth of information about the purchase.

Heckemeyer, Thomason and Williams don't seem to grasp how Crime Stoppers works. The truth is that most of the rewards paid by Crime Stoppers go to criminals, some of whom are in jail or on the lam or simply want to get even with someone who has crossed them. And that is one reason the program is so successful.

Do they not think that a bounty on meth-lab information wouldn't have the same effect? A reward system would make lab operators think twice about going into business and selling the drug, because they would know that anyone -- a neighbor, competitor or customer -- might squeal on them?

Money speaks to those who resort to crime rather than honest work, and $10,000 would look very attractive to those types. It also would make a lot of would-be meth manufacturers think twice before going into business.