Original Article Posted on Wed, Feb. 01, 2006 Shawnee County DA rejects reports from narcotics officersAssociated Press TOPEKA, Kan. - Shawnee County's district attorney will no longer consider reports from three of eight officers in the police department's troubled narcotics unit. The refusal is the result of a dispute about how long officers should serve in the unit before they are reassigned. After uncovering corruption in the unit during a joint investigation with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, District Attorney Robert Hecht said officers should serve in the unit for no more than three years. Hecht said rotation is needed to restore the drug unit's credibility. A report he released in October said narcotics officers regularly tampered with drug evidence and falsified records. One month earlier, former Topeka police officer Thomas Pfortmiller was sentenced to 16 months in prison for stealing thousands of dollars intended for undercover drug buys and using the money to support a gambling habit. A police union agreed last year to a five-year rotation beginning in August 2007. But Hecht is insisting on the three-year plan, which he said he developed after studying recommendations from the National Institute of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department. Starting last year, Hecht stopped accepting reports from one of the drug unit's officers. He confirmed Tuesday that he would start rejecting reports from a second and third officer beginning Wednesday. Hecht said all three officers had served five to 12 years on the drug unit. Hecht, who has not declined to prosecute a case based on the rotation issue, continues meeting with interim Police Chief Steve Harsha. "We're still hoping to find ways we can accommodate them and they can accommodate our concerns related to their contract," Hecht said. Harsha said the drug unit's officers remain busy despite the dispute. "Right now, it's just business as usual," he said. "For those individuals that have cases that may not be considered for prosecution, there's enough going on back there in supporting roles that we can keep them busy." So far, the union is not budging on the five-year rotation. "That's what our membership voted on and what the (city) council voted on, and we can't go back and change that contract," said Sgt. Bill White, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police.