COVINGTON - In the face of criticism over his department's difficulty in serving arrest warrants, Kenton County Sheriff Bill Steenken is pulling his deputies out of a special FBI task force formed specifically to help.
The sheriff cited frustrations among members of his department who aren't part of the federal effort and therefore can't get the overtime paid for by the FBI.
''You've got to have peace and harmony,'' he said.
The loss of the two deputies from the
five-member team undoubtedly will hamper the efforts to clear the backlog of more than 4,200 people wanted on outstanding warrants in Kenton County.
''If they want to serve warrants, they can serve them in the sheriff's office,'' Sheriff Steenken said Tuesday of Deputies Pat Morgan and Todd Brindle. Their last day on the task force is Dec. 31.
At issue is the effectiveness of the current warrant service system and who should be responsible for doing the job. Traditionally, the job is done by the county sheriff. But state law is open-ended, allowing any law enforcement officer to serve a warrant, but requiring no one to get the job done.
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.
The newspaper also reported that two deputies have been assigned since August to the undercover Safe Streets Task Force, organized by the FBI's Covington office.
Together, Deputies Brindle and Morgan had picked up about 50 of the 55 or so cases they opened in the past four months. The other three members are from the FBI, and the Newport and Covington police departments.
Sheriff Steenken said the task force assignment for his deputies originally was to end Dec. 6, but he agreed to let them remain until the end of the year. He said task force members asked for the sheriff's department to remain involved into Calls from The Enquirer seeking comment from other law enforcement departments were unsuccessful.
County officials, many of whom were first alerted to the warrants problem by The Enquirer's article, said they are disappointed with the sheriff's decision.
''I think it's unfortunate, but we'll have to look to the future and find some way of duplicating what that task force has been doing,'' said Judge-executive Clyde Middleton.
Mr. Middleton, County Attorney Garry Edmondson and County Police Chief Mike Browning are scheduled to meet today to discuss what can be done to help law enforcement track down the wanted people. The meeting will focus on what role the fiscal court or the county police department might play, Mr. Edmondson said.
Commissioner Nyoka Johnston said she also discussed the matter with Mr. Middleton and the chief on Tuesday. ''I personally feel the state legislature's going to have to address the issue,'' she said. ''Now that everyone's attention's on it, I think something will be done.''
The fiscal court unanimously approved the sheriff's 1997 budget during a special meeting Tuesday - without discussing the warrants situation.
''I was surprised because I was ready for them,'' the sheriff said.
He planned to tell court members that from Jan. 1 through Dec. 1, the sheriff's department served 598 warrants, not counting the FBI efforts.
''That's a lot of warrants,'' he said.
Lawmakers want answer to unserved warrants Published Dec. 17, 1996
4,200 unserved warrants in Kenton County Published Dec. 15, 1996
