Request By:
Mr. Russell England
Kenton County Sheriff Department
P.O. Box 632
Covington, Kentucky 41012
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question reads as follows:
"Please advise this office, as of the sheriff's responsibility when necessity warrants the sheriff to sign for the purchase of handguns for his department deputies and also, other law enforcement agencies, such as probation and parole."
The sheriff and deputies are peace officers (KRS 446.010(24)), possessing law enforcement powers. See KRS 431.005 (law of arrest). KRS 527.020(2) expressly authorizes the sheriff and his deputies to carry a concealed deadly weapon when necessary for their protection in the discharge of their when necessary for their protection in the discharge of their official duties. This means that the sheriff and his deputies may be equipped with handguns under the terms of KRS 527.020(2). Aside from KRS 527.020, the inherent nature of the law enforcement function carries with it the right to and necessity for their being equipped with handguns.
In Kenton County, pursuant to KRS 64.345, as amended in 1982 (Ch. 111, § 1), the amount, if any, allowed for the "necessary office expenses" of the sheriff shall be fixed by the fiscal court by an order entered on the fiscal court order book no later than January 15 of each year. (Emphasis added). A certified copy of the orders, and of any subsequent changes made therein, shall, as soon as entered, be forwarded to the state Department of Finance.
Your necessary office expenses are paid out of your seventy-five percent (75%) account maintained in the state treasury. The state accounting system relating to your office referred to in KRS 64.345 is merely an implementation of § 106, Kentucky Constitution, which speaks of the sheriff's "necessary office expenses. " (Emphasis added). The old
Court of Appeals, in Connors v. Jefferson County Fiscal Court, 277 Ky. 23, 125 S.W.2d 206 (1939) at page 209 pointed out that "necessary office expenses" in the constitution refers to expenses incident and necessary to proper conduct of duties of the office of sheriff and other officers mentioned therein.
It is our opinion that the purchase of handguns for you and your deputies in your law enforcement role constitutes a "necessary office expense", as envisioned in the constitution and statute. Thus you should request the fiscal court to authorize you to effect such a purchase, to be paid out of your seventy-five percent (75%) account.