Sheriff, police agencies at odds over turf w/ Cherokee County Sheriff's memo

By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

COLUMBUS, Kan. — Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Norman on Wednesday faxed a statement to police chiefs in Galena and Columbus, telling them to stay on their own turf.

The police chiefs said their officers respond outside their respective city limits only when dispatched by the Sheriff’s Department when a Sheriff’s deputy is not immediately available.

Norman disputed that, saying the police departments were “jumping calls.”

“They don’t have any jurisdiction outside of their city limits,” Norman said in a phone conversation.

‘It’s their baby’

Norman’s faxed statement says that police departments in Baxter Springs, West Mineral and Weir each have mutual-aid agreements with the Sheriff’s Department that allows them to go outside of their jurisdictions and which covers liability concerns. He said in a subsequent phone conversation that the Chetopa Police Department also has a mutual-aid agreement with the Sheriff’s Department.

“Any request from Columbus officers or Galena officers to first-respond into the county will politely be denied unless otherwise approved by Undersheriff (Kent) Soucy or myself,” Norman wrote.

In another line from the statement that is difficult to read, Norman wrote: “No patrol deputy or communications officer has the authority to have these agencies respond outside of their respective jurisdictions.”

The statement says that the Sheriff’s Department will not assume authority of a crime or accident scene where the two police departments have arrived first.

“We’re not going to assume the liability,” Norman said in the phone interview.

He said if the police departments arrive first at a crime scene or accident scene outside their jurisdictions “it’s their baby.”

‘Lives at stake’

Galena police Chief Larry Delmont and Columbus police Chief Chuck Sharp each said that the only time they have gone outside their city limits is when the Sheriff’s Department has dispatched them to a call when a Sheriff’s deputy has not been available.