Request By:
Mr. John E. Bouvier
Sheriff of Daviess County
Courthouse
Owensboro, Ky. 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
A question has arisen in your office concerning hiring a Deputy Sheriff with less than two (2) years residence in your county.
KRS 61.300 applies to the appointment of a regular deputy sheriff appointed under KRS 64.530 and 70.030. KRS 61.300 reads:
"No person shall serve as a deputy sheriff, deputy constable, patrol or other nonelective peace officer or deputy peace officer, unless:
(1) He is a citizen of the United States and is twenty-one (21) years of age or over;
(2) He has resided in the county wherein he is appointed to serve for a period of at least two (2) years; this subsection shall apply only to deputy sheriffs, deputy constables, and to special local peace officers appointed pursuant to KRS 61.360;
(3) He has never been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude;
(4) He has not within a period of two (2) years hired himself out, performed any service, or received any compensation from any private source for acting, as a privately paid detective, policeman, guard, peace officer or otherwise as an active participant in any labor dispute, or conducted the business of a private detective agency or of any agency supplying private detectives, private policemen or private guards, or advertised or solicited any such business in connection with any labor dispute. "
Since the person in question has not resided in your county for at least two years, he is not qualified to receive the appointment as deputy sheriff. Thus a deputy sheriff under KRS 61.300(2) must be, to qualify under that statute, a continuous resident of your county (county of appointment) for two (2) years next preceding his appointment as deputy sheriff. In Moore v. Tiller, Ky., 409 S.W.2d 813 (1966), the Court made this significant observation about residential requirements of a governmental officer at page 815:
"The residential requirements of the Constitution or a statute must have some reasonably determinable aspect and the objective of such a requirement deserves consideration. We construe it to be that a voter should exercise this privilege in an area where he is most likely to be cognizant of local issues and candidates. By the same token, a person running for office from a particular area should be so closely associated with the problems of that area that he can effectively represent the inhabitants thereof. Living there assures the accomplishment of these objectives. The question is not where a person has a sentimental desire to vote, or what group of people he wishes to represent, but where the law considers him best qualified to exercise his political rights and privileges."
The above principle expressed in Moore v. Tiller, above, applies also to the sheriff's deputies. We believe the General Assembly intended that the knowledge of the deputy sheriff of the county of appointment should have an immediacy. The residential requirement is mandatory. See KRS 446.010(29).
This individual could be hired as a court bailiff and paid by the Administrative Office of the Courts, since KRS 61.300 does not apply to such personnel.