Balson’s fellow officers in the Arlington Police Gang Unit describe him as a gifted investigator with a talent for assembling details from disparate sources into a full image. When Arlington residents complained about drug activity in houses in their neighborhoods, gang unit officers stormed those locations and seized large amounts of illegal drugs. Gang unit officers teamed up with federal and state agencies and shut down the drug dealers, but the officers who spoke with me said Arlington’s narcotics unit usually declined to participate with the gang unit.