Request By:
Mr. Mark Farrow
State Representative
62nd Legislative District
Capitol Building
Frankfort, Kentucky
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request our opinion on this question:
"May a county acting through its fiscal court give city police departments within the county county-wide jurisdiction?"
The fiscal court may enact ordinances relating to county police protection. KRS 67.083(3)(u). However, the fiscal court has no jurisdiction over city policemen, which are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the city legislative body. The county judge/executive can create a county police force pursuant to KRS 70.540, with countywide jurisdiction.
Under present law, the fiscal court has no authority to grant city policemen countywide jurisdiction. The territorial jurisdiction of city policemen is a matter that is left to the General Assembly and its legislative action. For example, KRS 95.740 provides that policemen in 4th and 5th class cities may, for offenses against the state [state statutes], have the same power of arrest as the sheriff, which is countywide.
The court declared in Earle v. Latonia Agricultural Ass'n, 127 Ky. 578, 106 S.W. 312 (1907) 314, that the General Assembly may under the constitution give police officers of cities and towns authority to make arrests and police territory beyond the limits of such cities. It is true that § 143 of the Constitution relating to police courts was repealed by Acts 1974, Ch. 84, §§ 1-3 [judicial reform, constitutional amendments]. However, the city police work is a separate matter and must go on. Municipalities are strictly creatures of the General Assembly as relates to local matters. Hargadon v. Silk, 279 Ky. 69, 129 S.W.2d 1039 (1939). See also § 156, Kentucky Constitution.