It wasn’t so long ago that this community endured a debate about the role of the county sheriff. In the run-up to Matt Lewis’ election as successor to Stan Hilkey’s administration in 2014, the GOP primary race included a “constitutional sheriff” candidate who aligned himself with a movement to fight federal encroachment, which carried all sorts of worrisome implications.

But a good working relationship between the sheriff and the U.S. Department of Justice is vital when it comes to enhancing the public’s safety, as a recent agreement for the feds to take on more drug traffickers can attest.

Thanks to a planned expansion of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Grand Junction, a new agreement with the Mesa County Jail and a solid working relationship with local law enforcement, acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said his office’s Grand Junction branch is poised to take on more drug trafficking cases.

That’s good news for the DA’s office, which for years has been forced to prosecute cases stemming from drug busts on local highways even though defendants may have no ties to Colorado. A growing felony caseload is one of the reasons DA Dan Rubinstein is behind a push to get voter approval of a sales tax hike to better fund law enforcement in Mesa County.

Read more at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.