It's not every day that law enforcement officers reach out to illegal drug users to help them solve crimes and "rat out" drug dealers.
But hopefully it will be happening more often in Navajo County, in Eastern Arizona.
Sheriff officials say they're tired of so many drug dealers in their county. Prescription drugs and heroin are huge problems in the communities and are leading to high crime rates and broken families.
"Our drugs primarily come from Maricopa County, our drug dealers bring the drugs back up here to the white mountains and deal them, our investigations are very aggressive in going after those sources of supply in eradicating those supplies at the source," said Jim Molesa the chief deputy of the Navajo County Sheriff's Department.
The agency isn't moving away from traditional investigation methods, but soon they are expanding those methods to capture the bad guys by distributing "special" post cards around their county.
Among other things, the postcard states: "Attention Drug Dealers - Is your drug dealing competition costing you money? We offer a FREE service to help you eliminate your drug competition." There are spaces on this postcard where individuals can anonymously write in the name, address, and cell phone numbers of people possibly involved in, or definitely involved in selling drugs.
While this technique is brand new to this county, and to some is a bit humorous, Molesa, says he and his officers expect to get a lot of legitimate drug leads from these postcards.
"We got this idea from an agency back east and it worked very well for them," Molesa said.
It's a grassroots effort. Cards will be given to block watch groups to spread around community centers throughout towns. When officers do drug raids at homes or businesses, they'll leave a few of these postcards at the scene because one never knows where a solid tip will come from.
The effort doesn't only crowd source possible drug users and dealers. Molesa says his agency wants to make sure the postcards are used as an educational tool as well. The backside of the postcard has a list and contact information for substance abuse treatment facilities, family support groups and helplines.
Molesa says 3,000 postcards will be distributed in about two weeks.
