Does Your County Have a Constitutionalist Sheriff!

[Diane Amberg]

Sarge, it's different here. New Castle County Police handle the police activities outside incorporated areas, assisted by the DSP with capital crimes, in NCC.  Little towns that don't have their own municipal police in the rest of the state are covered by DSP. Our State Police are not just a Highway Patrol as they are in many states. DSP handles schools and state property too. DSP also have helicopters for police work and can literally drop in where they are needed and fly someone to our big trauma center if needed.  Remember we are a very small state. NCC voted many years ago to tax it's self to have our own county police.  We also have mutual response agreements so nobody has to stop at a state or county line, and a first closest officer available agreement too. Our own fire police handle traffic duty at accident and such. They occasionally talk about merging NCCPD back with DSP but it never goes anywhere. The Sheriff is elected but his deputies are hired.

[W. Gray]

This concept was hard for me to grasp when I first came to Colorado. Living so close to the City and County of Denver and reading the Denver Post and the defunct Rocky Mountain News, it gradually sank in over a few years. When I lived in Missouri, I guess I was so far away from St. Louis that I never bothered to check it out. Since 1876, St. Louis has been the oldest city and county combination in the US.

Outside the "city limits of Denver," the adjoining applicable counties and cities provide police protection.

The land area of the City of Denver occupies the same land area as the County of Denver thus the governing entity is officially called the City and County of Denver. The city police provide police support in the City and County of Denver. The sheriff provides court administration duties in the City and County of Denver.

It is the same for Broomfield, Colorado. The citizens of that city voted for the city and county concept in 2001. Aurora, Colorado, citizens voted the concept down about three years ago. The "Aurorans" were mainly concerned about the expense of building an Aurora County courthouse—so they remained in Arapahoe County. The City of Denver split off from Arapahoe County in the early 1900s to become the City and County of Denver. This same Arapahoe County was once part of Kansas]

I don't know that Kansas law allows for the city and county model but for illustration purposes assume that the citizens of Moline, for whatever reason, voted to come under the city and county concept and become the City and County of Moline. The current "Moline Police" would continue to provide police protection within the city limits as they do now. The new Moline County Sheriff would operate out of a new Moline County Courthouse and would provide only jail and sheriff administrative duties for the Moline County court, etc.

For sure, when a new county is created in this manner, there is no county seat war.

[Diane Amberg]

To make it possibly even more confusing we have no NCC court house freestanding in the county. The courthouse where we do jury duty is actually in the City of Wilmington, but serves the city and the county.

[Sarge]

I thank you both for the clarification.

[Janet Harrington]

Rhode Island sheriffs also don't have the same duties that Kansas sheriffs do.  Rhode Island sheriffs take care of transporting prisoners and serving civil papers and doing sheriff sales.

Here is what I found on the Rhode Island Sheriffs Department web site...

The Rhode Island State Sheriff's Department is a statewide law enforcement agency under the Department of Administration. Our primary duties include Courthouse Security, Prisoner Transport, Executive Protection for the Judiciary, Apprehension and Extradition of Wanted Persons, and Service of Process. We have 196 sworn and civilian personnel under the command of the State's Executive High Sheriff, Colonel Gary P. Dias.

It is the mission of the Rhode Island State Sheriffs to provide the highest level of services to the Rhode Island Judiciary and Rhode Island Criminal Justice System while maintaining the greatest degree of integrity, impartiality, and confidentiality; to treat all individuals with the utmost respect, dignity, and fairness; to work with the Department of Corrections, the Rhode Island State Police, the Rhode Island Capitol Police, and all law enforcement agencies in a spirit of cooperation; to protect and provide security for all who enter the Rhode Island Courts while maintaining the highest degree of professionalism and decorum.

Our Duties and Responsiblities Include:
•To provide courtroom, courthouse, and judicial security.
•To provide transportation and custody of inmates and prisoners scheduled for court appearances.
•To maintain control and security of prisoners and detainees.
•To provide for the security of the public while in State court facilities.
•To provide interstate extraditions and inmate transfers.
•To execute writs and civil process.
•To provide mutual aid to any state or municipal law enforcement agencies and the Department of Corrections when requested.

Sheriffs in Rhode Island are appointed by the governor and are not an elected office.

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks Janet. Similar, but not quite the same as here. R. I. is unusual too in that the entire little state is incorporated. Our Sheriff,Mike Walsh, is up for election this year and for the first time in many years might get beat. He has three much younger challengers.

[larryJ]

Interesting thread.  In Los Angeles county, there are 88 cities and towns.  Some have their own police departments, (like ours), and many contract with the county sheriff for patrol services, emergency calls, etc., much like the city police.  Los Angeles county also has marshals who do the warrant serving and other services.  The courts use deputy sheriffs as bailiffs and county police as security for the entries to the courts (my son-in-law is one.)  Throw in the California Highway Patrol and we have law enforcement all over the place.  There is an intersection near my house that to the locals is just a main street running north and south.  The street that intersects is just a main street running east and west.  You do not want to get into a car accident in that intersection.
The intersection is divided up between the city police to the east and southwest, the sheriff to the northwest because that is an unincorporated area of the county and the CHP because that north/south street happens to be a state highway.  When I used to listen to scanners in my younger days, I would hear actual dispatchers asking where in the intersection was the accident so the correct agency could by notified.  You might not get assistance until they figure out who is liable.  Fortunately, there is a fire station one-half block away which responds to everything.

Same with the fire protection.  Some towns have their own fire department.  We did for many years, until the city council decided it was cheaper to contract with the county fire department.  So all the firemen changed from city employees to county employees, remained in the same fire stations and drove the same trucks, which were renamed for the county.  Of course, like other places, there is a total response agreement where other engine companies from other parts of the county and city fire departments can back each other up.  This is because of brush fires.

Incorporated and unincorporated can sometimes be a hassle like when you are looking for a certain address.  For example, you are looking for the 500 block of 1st Street.  So you are driving along and you see 100, 200, 300, 400 -----and then the next block you see 4000!  That is because you crossed over from a city into the county. 

Still it is interesting how each area handles their law enforcement.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Forgot to mention----------our city of 40,000+ has three fire stations, more or less located to best serve the city area.  So, we have three engine companies, but only one paramedic unit located in the main station downtown.  When there is a call for medical or fire emergencies, the engine company closest and/or available responds.  In my case, the aforementioned engine company near that intersection is less than a mile away.  When they respond to a call on this street, the engine company arrives first.  Of course, all firemen are qualified paramedics, but the engine company doesn't carry all the equipment the paramedic truck does.  So the paramedics from the downtown station respond from about 2 miles away, getting there in second place.  Now, the engine company can't transport anybody, nor can the paramedic utility truck, so they are followed by the ambulance which arrives last, but within minutes of the firemen.  If the paramedics are not being called for another emergency, one of them will ride with you in the ambulance to the hospital, hooking up IV's, etc.  This begins the parade.  The engine company goes home.  The ambulance starts for the hospital followed by the paramedic truck, because they have to pick up the paramedic that is with you and take him back to his station.  With my insurance, I have to go five miles to another city for hospital care as well as general medical care.  When I tell them I have that insurance, there is a moment of hesitation because they are leaving the area they serve, but they will take you there. 

On a side note, when I feel that I have to go to emergency and still am able to travel by private car, I will not do that.  Why?  Because if I go to emergency without the paramedics, I will sit there a long time waiting to be seen unless, of course, my life is in danger.  If I ride in a ambulance with a paramedic, I go right into the treatment area------no waiting.   

Funny how things work.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Larry as far as emergency care you do have it figured out and I know you would not abuse it. You are right, we don't even go in the same door as the less urgent care car patients. But then there are the heart patients who should have gone by ambulance but don't want to bother us or don't want to wait and go by car. Christiana Care, our big trauma center estimates that about 75% of all their heart cases don't come in by ambulance.

[srkruzich]

I have never called 911 for my heart attacks. I have found it is much faster for me to go in myself.  And when having one, you don't have any time to waste.  I have never ever had to wait when i go in.  I go in the ambulance doors and tell them i am having chest pain and i think its an attack and they immediately put me in the room and start hooking me up and grabbing TPA to shoot in me.   

I know around here it takes far too long for emts to get to us.  Its faster to drive me to wichita than to wait on the emt's.