Sheriff attends spring Sheriff's Conference

Last week, I was able to attend the spring Sheriff's Conference at Lake Ozark where sheriffs from all over the state met to attend training, and hear from a variety of speakers that included Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, the director of the Department of Public Safety, and representatives from MoDOT and other state agencies. Attorney General Koster talked about his efforts to help with the creation of laws and the prosecution of synthetic drugs that have begun to take over the methamphetamine markets. This was a concern of most of the sheriffs that attended and many shared their stories about how these drugs were affecting their counties.

I found the training very valuable and found the time to visit and talk to other sheriffs even more so. On one of the days, the Sheriff's Association made arrangements for the newly elected sheriffs to meet with some of the longest serving sheriffs to get advice and hear some of the obstacles they faced when they were first elected. It was a privilege to hear the Saline County Sheriff Wally George speak about his time as sheriff. Sheriff George was elected in 1979 and is currently the longest serving sheriff in Missouri history. Sheriff George served in the Vietnam War in the '60s and began working in the Saline County Sheriff's Office in 1970. Sheriff George was elected in a special election after the death of the sheriff at the time. Each sheriff gave his own advice and, though it varied in opinion on many different subjects, the one thing they all had in common was the need to protect the constitutional rights of the people in their counties.

One of the biggest concerns of all the sheriffs was dealing with the new way some laws in Missouri are being handled. The state legislature has been taking out some state laws and then in the place of those laws referring to federal laws. For example, it is no longer a state offense to carry a switch blade unless it is a violation of federal code. The state law making carrying a switch blade an offense was replaced with a reference to federal law, which means that it is only a state violation if it is a federal violation. There are two possible problems with this. First, there are possible legal issues in terms of charging someone with an offense when the law has been written in this way. More than this, is the issue of Missouri giving over its authority to make its own laws and instead referring to federal law. Missouri must safeguard its right to make the laws it chooses based on both the Missouri and the United States Constitution. I plan to write our legislature to voice my concern over these issues.