Lawmakers asked to allow sheriff's deputies to work other counties

Would let deputies temporarily help out

When there's a major fire, surrounding fire departments are ready to move in and help the local department both fight the major fire and answer other calls.

Missouri sheriffs want the General Assembly to give them power to do the same thing, Cole County Sheriff Greg White said Wednesday.

"My personal history dates back to when Pettis County had a tornado go through," White told the state Senate's Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. "We were able to send deputies to Pettis County to relieve their deputies for 24 hours, so they could take care of their own personal business with the damage that had been experienced by their own families.

"But it took some quick work by our attorneys getting mutual aid agreements."

State Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, sponsors the bill that would allow any Missouri sheriff or deputy to work temporarily in another county with all arrest and other powers - at the request of the sheriff needing help.

"Currently, sheriffs and their deputies can offer aid to adjoining counties, upon the request of that county's sheriff," Dixon explained. "This is a common sense thing that came out of our experiences with the Joplin tornado" almost five years ago.

White - who testified both for his own office and for the Missouri Sheriffs Association - said the idea has worked in other states.

"I had a friend who was sheriff in Polk County, Florida," White explained, "and they had a situation where they had three hurricanes go through in one year - and developed their own (mutual aid) response."

He noted they sent semis with their deputies to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Dixon's bill also clarifies the officers going to help in another county remain covered by the responding county in the event of a worker's compensation claim.

Dixon noted lawmakers passed a similar bill last year, but it didn't win final approval because of a Senate "meltdown" during the session's last week, when Democrats blocked votes on every bill but one after a dispute over handling ofthe controversial right-to-work bill.

The Judiciary committee didn't act on Dixon's bill Wednesday.