Officials will redefine joint law enforcement

To a citizen, it's simple. If there is a problem, a law enforcement officer should come help. But have you noticed that there are mainly two colors of uniform shirts around, blue and khaki? Blue is the Glasgow Police Department and khaki is the Valley County Sheriff's Office. Blue is for inside the city limits; khaki is for the county.

That arrangement serves the citizens well most of the time, but there are problems with the edges and overlaps of the jurisdictions, when help is needed quickly but the nearest officer is wearing the wrong color shirt. The Valley Event Center is county property nestled in the city. Sullivan Park is city land outside of town. Scotty Pride Drive and Airport Road are split and regularly travelled by both forces.

For about 20 years, the sheriff's office has issued deputy cards to police officers, effectively cross deputizing them to act in the county when needed without a specific invitation. The officers had to have graduated from the Montana Law Enforcement Academy before receiving a card.

Recently, however, Sheriff Glen Meier and County Attorney Nick Murnion have decided that it doesn't work anymore. The matter comes down to worker's comp liability for the police officers. Hours were never turned in when they were acting as deputies, so they really had no coverage.

Other counties don't issue deputy cards, and only four officers actually had one anyway.

Sheriff Meier and Glasgow Police Chief Bruce Barstad have decided to use a memorandum of understanding instead. Murnion and City Attorney Dave Gorton are currently drafting one.

It is often months before a new police officer can attend the academy. With an MOU, graduation from the academy is not required. Simply being a member of the Glasgow Police Department is enough.

MOUs are used elsewhere in this area for law enforcement coverage. McCone County and Valley County have an MOU for coverage in the Fort Peck area. Rock Creek is in Garfield County but McCone County covers it.

"We're just figuring out the jurisdiction issues with the county, how to respond to issues on the boundaries of the outlying portions of Glasgow that have a direct effect on Glasgow but are within the county," said Barstad. "The city wants to make sure we provide coverage to people of the city and also the peripheral areas. We want to assure that liability issues are taken care of, that we have officers covered in a joint situation."

"It is not a jurisdiction issue as much as a liability issue," said Meier. "We want to know who is responsible where and the MOU will totally take care of that. It will also clear up cloudy areas of jurisdiction. This is just simple housekeeping."