Cobb law enforcement officials on the board of a county drug task force said they were “saddened” that Marietta police were withdrawing from “participating in crucial joint operations to address the ongoing battle with illegal drugs,” according to a statement.

Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week that he is pulling his department out of the Marietta, Cobb and Smyrna Organized Crime Task Force Narcotics Unit to focus more on drug abuse prevention and intervention. The three Marietta officers on the task force will be reassigned.

“We just can’t arrest our way out of it,” Flynn said. “We need to get these people treatment.”

In the statement, MCS board members Sheriff Neil Warren, interim District Attorney John Melvin, Solicitor Barry Morgan and Public Safety Director and former Cobb Police Chief Mike Register emphasized the importance of working together to address illegal drugs in the community.

"The reality is that drug addiction and distribution are a community wide problem that is best solved working together across all city and county boundaries,” Register said.

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