Request By:
Mr. Robert E. Cato
City Attorney
222 West Fifth Street
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You ask whether the sheriff and city policemen (4th class city) are still allowed the $7.00 arrest fee pursuant to KRS 64.090 [misdemeanor cases].
The sheriff is still a fee officer, and he is still entitled to the fee for arrests in misdemeanor cases. KRS 24A.140(2) provides that the sheriff shall be compensated for his services rendered the district court in the same manner and at the same rates as for similar services rendered the circuit court.
As concerns the city policemen, when sessions of district court are held in city facilities, the city policemen shall be responsible for attending court, keeping order, and providing the same services to district court as are provided by the sheriff to circuit court. Compensation for such services shall be the same as allowed to the sheriff. KRS 24A.140(3). See KRS 95.740(2), providing that city policemen [4th and 5th classes] are entitled to the same fees allowed sheriffs, but the city may direct by ordinance that the fees be paid into the city treasury when the policemen are on a salary. Thus city policemen are entitled to the $7.00 arrest fee, subject to KRS 95.740(2) and 24A.140(3), as mentioned above.
The arrest fee is separately taxed in the costs. The fee is payable to the sheriff or policeman, as the case may be, if defendant is convicted and the defendant pays the fee to the district court clerk. Then the clerk can pay the fee to the sheriff or policeman. This is the system beginning January 2, 1978.
Finally, the fees payable to such officers are shown in KRS 64.090. You should consider services rendered in terms of specifically provided fees in the statute.