POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. - As the new commander of the SEMO Drug Task Force, the "buck stops" with Mark McClendon, who is learning to multitask as he leads the unit.
When Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Glaser announced his impending retirement, McClendon decided he wanted to try leading the organization he had been a part of for more than 16 years.
"I wanted to give it a shot," said the Highway Patrol sergeant who took over Sept. 1. "I wanted to try and see how I could do."
McClendon also wanted a new challenge, which was part of his decision.
During his tenure with the task force, McClendon has been involved in "upper level federal" and long-term drug investigations. "This is just a different type of challenge," he said.
It is a challenge that Glaser also helped McClendon prepare for.
"(Glaser) helped prepare me in the last two to three months that he was here; I was taking some of the responsibilities over, so that helped," McClendon said.
Being on his own is "different ... I'm learning to be a boss (and) how to wear that hat," McClendon explained. "The biggest adjustment has been (learning) the buck stops here.
"When I was a narcotics investigator working cases, I worked with (the other officers) kind of on an equal basis. They were my partner, my fellow investigator. The boss, it's a little bit different; I'm getting used to it."
As the unit's commander, he said, there's a "lot of things thrown at you from a lot of different directions."
While McClendon used to be able to focus on completing one task to the "best of my ability" and then moving on, he now is multitasking.
"I'm having to get used to that; that's something I've got to get better at ... I'm getting there," he said.
McClendon started with the patrol in July 1990 and initially was assigned to Zone 10, Kennett, Mo.
In April 1995, McClendon transferred to the patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control and was assigned to the task force "at the same time."
Working in narcotics was "something that I wanted to do," McClendon said. "When I decided on criminal justice ... law enforcement in college, I kind of had an idea narcotics work would be something I would want to do."
McClendon said he had a high school and college classmate, Stacy Sims, who joined the task force in about 1991.
"He would tell me what he was doing," McClendon said. "I was already interested in it anyway, but he kept my interest peaked."
When McClendon joined the task force in 1995, it was about the same time methamphetamine labs "started hitting us hard. We were having people shoplift pseudoephedrine off the shelves (and) lots of larger cooks (where suspects were) cooking two to three ounces, a half pound" at a time.
Those labs now are non-existent as "we've tried to clamp down on the pseudoephedrine," he said. "You just don't have those big cooks like we used to have."
With today's shake-and-bake labs, manufacturers need a "couple of 2-liter bottles and that's about it," McClendon said.
The abuse of prescription medications, according to McClendon, also has risen since 1995.
"I know it was being abused back then, but now, it's more prevalent," he said. "I don't remember it as being as wide spread then."
The enforcement effort of methamphetamine labs remains a "priority for us. It's not slowed down; it's stayed constant," he said.
The labs continue to be a health hazard to the community and the officers working them, so "we'll stay emphasized" in combating those, he said.
The SEMO Drug Task Force, he said, continues to put together "solid numbers" in regards to its cases.
As compared to other patrol-supervised task forces, "our numbers are always in the top three or so," McClendon said. "I don't see that changing much in the near future."
Task Force members worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI during the summer months on what McClendon described as "title 3" federal investigations, so 2011's year end numbers might be down a little bit from previous years.
"We were just focusing, dedicated to those, and we didn't generate a lot of case numbers because those investigations are manpower intensive, McClendon said.
"It is surveillance, lots and lots of surveillance," and monitoring of every incoming and outgoing call, which also included documenting and transcribing the calls," he said.
Two of those long-term federal investigations, including one centered in Dunklin County and Northeast Arkansas, recently wrapped up.
Nine, according to McClendon, face federal charges stemming from that investigation, while another 30 were arrested in late August as the result of an investigation in the Sikeston, Mo., area.
"Our officers put a lot of time and effort in those cases," as did the DEA, FBI and Bootheel Drug Task Force, he said. "It was a joint effort by everybody. ... It's still ongoing. Future arrests could be possible still."
McClendon said the task force has a "good reputation of bringing good cases to prosecutors, (and) I definitely want to see that continue.
"A goal of the task force is to keep up the same level of high quality cases to present to state and federal prosecutors."
McClendon wants a prosecutor, when he or she looks at a task force case, to feel "real confident, comfortable about the quality of it. I want to have high quality cases" made by the officers.
As the officers continue to build cases, it now is McClendon's job to keep up with the unit's funding.
"We have five or six different grants that we're juggling, some of them from '07 and '08," McClendon said. "We're spending money from back then. It's a lot to juggle and a lot to keep up with."
While the unit's finances are good right now, there are no "clear answers" from Washington, D.C., to where the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) are going, which is the unit's primary funding source, McClendon said.
"The rumor is that they are going to zero that out," McClendon said. "They've done that before, zeroed it out, and at the last minute, put money back in it.
"We just hope and pray they keep putting money in it. We've got five officers that are assigned to the task force who are paid for by those monies."
McClendon said the task force would take a "big hit" if the Byrne JAG fund doesn't get appropriated.
"I'm sure cutbacks are probably coming," he said. "I figure we'll get cut some, (but) don't want to lose everything."
Since task forces have so much support from local law enforcement, state representatives and state senators, "I don't see them doing that," but "nothing is for sure," McClendon said.