Little protection and high risk - it's the narcotics officer's job

VIRGINIA BEACH

It is perhaps the highest-risk position in an already dangerous profession. Undercover police officers step into unpredictable situations carrying their instinct, a quick wit and, occasionally, a gun.

No badge. No body armor.

At some point they most likely will be robbed, assaulted or, at the least, threatened. But rarely are they killed, which is why the Aug. 7 shooting death of a detective in Virginia Beach left undercover experts and investigators across the country stunned.

"There was no way you could stop that," Charlie Fuller, an undercover tactics trainer and retired special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said last week of the shooting that killed Detective Michael Smith Phillips.

Police say a man walked up to Phillips' pickup and abruptly opened fire, killing the detective as he tried to negotiate the sale of a half-pound of marijuana with a suspected dealer. He was the first undercover narcotics detective to be killed this year in the United States, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page Web site, which tracks law enforcement deaths.

Phillips wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest, but that's not uncommon for undercover detectives, particularly in hot weather, when one is harder to conceal.

Fuller, who was leading a training session in Seattle when he heard the news, immediately wondered how he could help other officers learn from the tragedy.

"I'm thinking, 'How can I stop it? What can I tell them so it doesn't happen again?' " he recalled in a phone interview.

His conclusion: "There's nothing I can tell them..."

"You can plan all you want, but if someone's going to assassinate you, there's not much you can do."

Phillips' death underscored the risk associated with undercover police work, a role described as both invaluable and dangerous. Undercover officers often must change their appearance, work late hours and deal with people they do n't know, usually alone and up to a football field's length from backup.

A successful operation, however, can lead to a "slam-dunk case," said Brian Sallee, a national trainer and undercover narcotics detective in Albuquerque, N.M.

"It's high-risk for little amounts of dope," he said, "but it's good results because you can make good, solid cases taking off the streets the people who are most destructive, most disruptive in your community."

In nearly 18 years investigating narcotics, Sallee said he has taken part in hundreds of undercover drug buys or sales. He arrested three generations of two different families during stings, and he loved the job so much that he retired from the force and came back four months later because he missed narcotics work.

He also has been robbed and shot at during undercover operations. Other detectives in his department, he said, have been knocked unconscious or robbed at gunpoint. Two of his colleagues barely escaped execution at the hands of three men they'd arranged to sell 80 pounds of marijuana.

"They had it set up to rip them off and just kill them both," he said.

All undercover operations carry risks, but it is the street-level deal, like the one Phillips was engaged in when he was shot, that is the most dangerous, experts said. Such dealers are more likely to be users themselves, and their backgrounds can be difficult to track.

Virginia Beach police haven't released details about how well Phillips knew Ted Vincent Carter or Marshall D. Moyd, the two men who were arrested and charged in his death.

Court records show Phillips and Moyd arranged the Aug. 7 deal by phone, with Moyd agreeing to sell a half-pound of marijuana to Phillips for $675. Backup officers were watching Moyd and Phillips negotiate inside a pickup truck when, police say, Carter suddenly stepped up and opened fire on Phillips, striking him three times in the torso.

Another court document says Carter later told an investigator "a voice" told him to shoot the detective. Police Chief Jake Jacocks has said department policies are being reviewed, but, he said, Phillips and other officers at the scene appeared to have followed proper procedure.

Undercover work can be the most rewarding job a police officer can perform, said Kenneth Stolle, a state senator and former Virginia Beach police narcotics detective.

Stolle said he was once held at gunpoint during an undercover cocaine buy at a city restaurant.

The dealers, he said, suspected him of being a police officer. Stolle denied it and tried to talk his way out. After a waitress vouched for him and insisted he wasn't an officer, the dealers relaxed, Stolle said.

"The one thing I do know," he added, "is that you're not going to be able to conduct investigations, not going to be able to identify the dealers, unless there's some cop in some city who's willing to risk his life to make the buys that typically start the investigations."

Staff writer Duane Bourne contributed to this report.

Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com