COVINGTON - Surprised by revelations that Kenton County has more than 4,200 unserved arrest warrants, legislators and elected officials said Monday the problem must be fixed.
But how to accomplish that needs to be studied, they said.
''To have that many outstanding warrants is terrible,'' said State Sen. Dick Roeding, chairman of the Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus.
The Enquirer reported Sunday that more than 4,200 people were wanted in Kenton County, most for misdemeanors such as theft by deception and contempt of court. But some are allegedly violent offenders wanted for things such as rape and domestic violence.
At issue is the effectiveness of the current warrant service system and who should be responsible for doing the job. By state law, any law enforcement officer in the commonwealth can serve a warrant and arrest the subject. But the officers are only made eligible to do it - no one is required.
The FBI put together an undercover task force last summer to help. Agents acknowledged the existence of the task force last week.
Sen. Gex ''Jay'' Williams, R-Verona, said the General Assembly wouldn't want requiring one agency to serve warrants to result in all others losing the ability.
If any agency were to be given that mandate, he said he thinks it should be the sheriff's departments. ''Being a constitutional office, the sheriff is a little bit autonomous,'' he said. ''There are some limits, but maybe (the law) could be clearer.''
Mr. Roeding, R-Fort Mitchell, said law enforcement should come to a consensus on what needs to be done.
If the legislature needs to act, Mr. Roeding said, he hopes a bill can be introduced before 1998, when the legislature meets again. That way the bill could be passed early in the session, he said.
The most egregious example of the lack of warrant service is the case of Donald Colston, who murdered his estranged wife, Sandra, in April. At the time he shot her in his Fort Wright apartment, he had been wanted for a year for failing to keep in touch with the parole officer he had from a previous robbery sentence.
State Rep. Dick Murgatroyd, the Crestview Hills Republican who represents Fort Wright, also called for the issue to be examined. However, he said the legislature's intervening could create problems. ''I've always believed if the local people can handle it, it's better handled there,'' he said.
If state law allows fingerpointing while making no one responsible, Kenton County Commissioner Nyoka Johnston said, the legislature needs to step in.
''That to me sounds like a flaw,'' she said. ''And there has to be someone or a combination - some system in place that is accountable to see that these are being served.''
The Kenton Fiscal Court is scheduled to vote on the sheriff's budget during a special meeting this morning. Mrs. Johnston said she wants to hear Sheriff Bill Steenken say what he's doing to be more aggressive in serving warrants. ''I think it's an appropriate question for us to ask because everyone's concerned,'' she said.
Commissioner Bernie Moorman said the sheriff may need more money to get the job done and said cutting the budget wouldn't help.
''It's something that's got to be corrected,'' he said. ''We can't let that happen. I think it's a responsibility for all of us to get involved and make it work.''
Mr. Moorman said he thinks the warrant backlog can be addressed.
''I don't know that this is an issue that needs a planning study,'' he said. ''It's just a matter of committing ourselves to make sure the work is done, and that's the truth.''
Bill Dorsey, an assistant Covington police chief, suggests that much of the problem was created by the 1975 constitutional amendment that overhauled Kentucky's judicial system. It abolished municipal courts in favor of the current statewide court system. But what it also did, he said, is stop a successful system of having each city police department serve its court's warrants.
There is a perception that the sheriff's department gets a financial incentive to serve the warrants, said Kenton Deputy Pat Morgan. He acknowledges that each does generate money for the office, but said the $10 turns out to be about about $1.67 after the fiscal court and other programs get their cuts.
So without the financial incentive, current state law neither requires nor effectively entices departments to serve the warrants.
''It never mandates it,'' said Kenton County Judge-executive Clyde Middleton, who was a senator when the judicial reform act passed. ''The state in effect assumes that all police authorities will assume the duty of serving warrants in their respective areas.''
Mr. Middleton said the General Assembly can fix the problem. ''It shouldn't be a case of empowering,'' he said, ''but a case of mandating.''
Sunday's story
