Delhi chief says video shows troubling behavior

A video discovered as part of an ongoing undercover investigation has led Delhi’s police chief to question the judgment of one of the town’s alderman.

“Alderman Larry Rancher seems to be giving informants information on where to find drugs,” Delhi Police Chief Roy Williams said. “He’s not doing anything he can be arrested for, but I do believe it’s an ethics violation.”

Williams said the video was taken July 30, 2019 at Fifth and Foster streets in Delhi by informants.

“That’s something we do as part of our ongoing undercover investigations,” Williams said.

Informants are supplied with hidden cameras and told to attempt to purchase drugs inside the town of Delhi. Officers then use this information to develop leads, obtain warrants and make arrests in drug cases.

While the video in question has a time stamp of May 19, 2013, Williams said it was actually taken July 30, 2019. He came upon the video while inspecting tapes which had not been used as evidence.

“I routinely go back and watch all the video in order to review how informants are acting and making sure they’re not doing anything wrong,” Williams said. 

In reviewing the videos, he discovered a video in which two female informants were driving through the area near Fifth and Foster streets in Delhi attempting to find someone from whom they could purchase drugs.

In the video, Rancher can be seen approaching their vehicle in his and asking if they’re lost. During the ensuing conversation, the women tell Rancher they’re looking for cocaine. The alderman appears to ask them “hard or soft?” before telling them there’s nothing available in that neighborhood.

Later in the conversation, he said nobody in the area was selling cocaine, but just marijuana. When the informants said they’d be interested in that, he appeared to suggest they’d do better looking in the housing projects or at another location in town.

As they were preparing to leave, he advised them not to tell people they were looking for drugs.

“Say ‘hey, what’s going on? Anything going on?’” Rancher said. “That’s the keyword.”

The informants then thanked him and left.

Williams said the video wasn’t used in any drug investigation since Rancher committed no crime in the video. He didn’t attempt to buy or sell drugs and simply answered the women’s questions. Since the informants didn’t buy drugs at either of the locations Rancher suggested, Williams said there was also no element of conspiracy.

“There’s no charge that I can bring against him based on what is in the video,” Williams said, “but I believe this is an ethics violation.”

When contacted, Rancher said he hadn’t seen the video, but remembered a conversation with two women in a truck in that area several months ago.

“I knew during this time they were doing drug searches,” Rancher said. “I knew two white women in a black area were probably informants because they’d been driving around in circles.”

Whether or not that was the conversation in the video, Rancher said, “I don’t buy drugs, I don’t sell drugs and I don’t have anything to do with drugs. This is just the police chief trying to make me look bad because of some problems we’ve been having.  This is nothing but a witch hunt.”