BUDGET WOES FOR A PAIR OF EAST KENTUCKY SHERIFF DEPARTMENTS CAUSES THEIR OPERATIONS TO BE SEVERELY HAMPERED

ALREADY BAD SITUATION TO WORSEN SOON FOR MARTIN COUNTY; COMES AS MAGOFFIN COUNTY SHERIFF RECENTLY MADE SIGNIFICANT CUTS IN MANPOWER AND PATROL HOURS 

BOTH COUNTIES MAKE UP TWO OF THE FOUR COUNTIES THAT PRIMARILY USE THE BIG SANDY REGIONAL DETENTION CENTER IN PAINTSVILLE TO HOUSE THEIR PRISONERS

Martin County Sheriff John Kirk is about to be the lone employee in his own office starting August 5, which was already coming off a horrible time this year financially where Kirk had to layoff his bookkeeper and all but one of his deputies in February. 

Because of that move at that time, Sheriff Kirk made a buzz across national news headlines when he told county residents to “lock their doors, keep their guns loaded and within reach, and to have to have reliable guard dogs to protect their properties.”

Sheriff Kirk will be the lone law enforcement officer in Martin County. Kirk said this is worrying because he has not had the opportunity to be proactive on his patrols because he has had to spend time handing out eviction notices and handling property taxes.

“We are here to represent the people,” Kirk said. “We’re not here to represent ourself. We’re not here to get rich. We’re not an employment agency. We don’t just keep adding employees to affect the payroll. We have to serve the people, we have to do something. We need to be able to answer that call. We need to be out here patrolling. We need proactive law enforcement instead of reactive. We can’t even be hardly reactive.” Sheriff Kirk further stated

The Martin County Sheriff’ Department is funded by the Martin County Fiscal Court which, according to Sheriff Kirk, has not increased taxes to fund Martin County offices since 1987.

Martin County as a whole has also lost money due to the downturn of the local coal industry in the past decade,

With the downsizing of the Martin County Sheriff’s Department, and the fact there are no city police agencies in Martin County, all local law enforcement will be mainly centered around the Kentucky State Police, whose local post #9 in Pikeville, in Pike County, also serves Pike, Floyd, Magoffin and Johnson counties. This means that on any given day for Martin County there will be only a few hours of having one, maybe two KSP troopers at any time, as most of any state police officers are on multi-county patrols in the 5 counties that KSP Post #9 serves.

Various local and regional media attempts were made to reach the judge executive in Martin County, Bill Davis, but they were unsuccessful.

THE MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPARTMENT HAS LOST 66% OF ITS FORCE IN 2019. AND STARTING IN EARLY AUGUST, IT WILL HIT ROCK BOTTOM, WHEN FURTHER BUDGET CUT WILL LEAVE SHERIFF KIRK THE ONLY EMPLOYEE IN HIS DEPARTMENT

 

 

CUTBACKS ALSO STRIKE MAGOFFIN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPARTMENT 

Financial problems have also struck another eastern Kentucky Sheriff’s department recently, this time in Magoffin County, resulting in layoffs and reduced patrol time. 

Magoffin County Sheriff Carson Montgomery recently stated in remarks, that as of this his office can no longer afford to provide 24 hour protection, and he has been forced to lay off three of his five deputies. The two deputies who are remaining will be covering daytime patrols seven days a week, but only for a limited period of time for patrol, which will be ending at 6 P.M.  

Just as with the downsizing with Martin County, with the cuts in the Magoffin County Sheriff’s Department, and the fact there are no city police agencies in Martin County, most of the local law enforcement will be mainly centered around the Kentucky State Police, who can only provide a limited amount of presence as well in Magoffin County, the difference is that there is a city police agency, the Salyersville Police Department, to cover the city area, even though they, too, have only two officers because of budget problems of their own.

In the past few years, Magoffin County has generally has had the largest number of arrests each week of the four local counties that uses the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville to lodge prisoners they arrest, with on numerous occasions accounting for over half the weekly number of inmates brought to the BSRDC, and on more than occasion, had more arrests in a week that Johnson, Lawrence, and Martin counties put together.

Since the July 1 cuts by the Magoffin County Sheriff Department, arrest numbers are down, with a general as best given review, with a total of at least 36 arrests in the county, with at least 13 by by the sheriffs department, at least 17 by the Salyersville Police Department, and at least 6 by the Kentucky State Police. In addition, at least another 10 Magoffin County residents were arrested in neighboring Jonson County, or were those who turned themselves in at the BSRDC in Paintsville, to serve guilty plea ‘contempt’ (weekenders) jail sentences.

Due to the lower arrest numbers in Magoffin and Martin County, so far this month the total number of prisoners lodged by the four counties that use the BSRDC, as of from the start of July 1 thru to 5 P.M. Thursday, July 25 is at least 238. The average monthly prisoner count who are brought to the BSRDC ranges from from 325 to 425.

For a comparison, from April 1 thru to June 2019, at least 1,156 prisoners were taken to the BSRDC in Paintsville.