What Does Justice Mean?

COMBAT understands Justice means pursuing violent offenders and drug dealers not only to prosecute them but to also save the lives of those they prey on.

Furthermore, Justice means developing programs that help crime victims become survivors—programs like Caring From Crime Survivors and Project Rise.

And Justice is realizing the community is better served when indvidiuals suffering from a substance abuse disorder are given treatment—that the "just thing to do" isn't imprisoning them but giving them a chance to get their lives on track through Drug Court or Deferred Prosecution.

COMBAT is changing with the times to meet new challenges. The waging-war attitude prevalent in the 1990s has been replaced with doing our best to make peace, so that each neighborhood in our community can be a safe place to call home.

In The Prevention Business

COMBAT has become an essential source of funding for local law enforcement and the courts. More than half of all COMBAT funding goes toward law enforcement.

"COMBAT gives us resources to fight crime that other local agencies in the country just don't have," says Dan Cummings, Officer-In-Charge of the Jackson County Drug Task Force.

COMBAT funds both the Drug Task Force and Drug Court. 

COMBAT funding enables the Jackson County Drug Task Force to engage in wide-ranging investigations not possible in most other counties—in Missouri or across the nation. Detectives and other personnel from 12 Eastern Jackson County police departments and the Sheriff's Office are assigned to the Task Force. 

“The Task Force is a very valuable resource to the smaller (law enforcement) agencies in Jackson County that lack the resources to handle large-scale drug cases,” Lone Jack Police Chief Tim Cosner points out. “Many of these agencies sit on major highways or interstates that make them convenient locations to set up drug trafficking operations. Over the years the Jackson County Drug Task Force has assisted the Lone Jack Police Department with several situations where we lacked the resources needed to properly work a case.”

Officer-In-Charge Cummings, meanwhile, sees the role of the Task Force as being prevention—as in preventing more illicit drugs from being sold in Jackson County.

Horrifying Amount Of Fentanyl Seized Enough Seized For Potentially Millions Of Lethal Doses An investigation that the Jackson County Drug Task Force and federal Homeland Security officials initiated more two years ago has culminated in 39 defendants being indicted for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute more than 335 kilograms (738½ pounds) of methamphetamine and 22 kilograms (48½ pounds) of heroin. Especially alarming was the amount of fentanyl also seized: 10.4 kilograms (22.9 pounds), enough for millions—literally millions—of potentially lethal doses.” » 'DEADLY' DRUGS KEPT OFF STREETS