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SIGN THE
PETITION
Fellow Law Enforcement
Professionals and citizens of Kentucky:
As you are all aware, on July 15th,
House Bill 463 took effect and made some of the most significant changes to the
Kentucky Penal Code since its inception. Among the changes brought on by HB 463,
KRS 431.005 was amended to limit arrests for misdemeanors. I have been told
that this change was made at the request of the County Judge Executives who were
concerned about the increasing costs of incarceration in our jails. I have had
the opportunity to speak to Representative John Tilley about this change and
voice some of my concerns. He has given me the opportunity to appear at the next
meeting of the Task Force on Friday October 7th in Frankfort.
My goal is to persuade the Task Force to rescind
the changes to KRS 431.005 and allow officers to use their discretion in making
an arrest. My presentation to the Task Force will cover several topics. First,
preventing Law Enforcement from making arrests in many cases also prevents us
from taking several follow up steps:
- We cannot take a booking photo of the suspect;
- We cannot take the suspect’s fingerprints,
- We cannot perform a search incident to arrest,
- We cannot transport the suspect to a detective for further questioning.
Second, as currently written, KRS 431.005 has several confusing provisions. For
example, Law Enforcement cannot arrest a suspect for Criminal Trespass 1st
degree or 2nd degree without making a request that the suspect leave
(lawful instruction from Law Enforcement) but we can arrest for Criminal
Trespass 3rd degree without taking that additional step.
Third, as the law is currently written, if an officer locates a suspect who has
just committed a larceny from an auto and has the property in hand, the officer
may be forced to recover the property, issue a citation for receiving stolen
property, and then watch the suspect walk away to likely commit additional
thefts that night.
Fourth, the current exceptions which allow arrests create confusion in what was
once a settled area of the law. They also open up numerous opportunities for the
defense to seek suppression of evidence or statements.
Finally, several other changes to pre-trial release were made by HB 463. These
changes may be enough to produce the desired cost savings without taking away a
valuable tool of Law Enforcement.
Representative Tilley has indicated he would be
willing to make some changes to KRS 431.005 if Law Enforcement throughout the
Commonwealth can demonstrate the need to make those amendments. As a result, I
am asking you to take one or all of the following steps.
First, and most importantly, please sign the
petition to the Task Force on the KPOA home page. This petition is designed to
demonstrate that these changes to KRS 431.005 have severely hampered Law
Enforcement and that Law Enforcement throughout the Commonwealth is asking the
Task Force to change the statute. I have been told that the only way to make a
change in the Statute is to show broad support from officers across the
Commonwealth.
Second, if you have experienced any situations
where you or a fellow officer were unable to arrest a suspect due to the new
wording of KRS 431.005 and the suspect committed another crime when they would
have still been in custody for the charge you were unable to arrest for, please
send me that information for presentation to the Task Force.
Third, if you have an argument in favor of
rescinding the changes to KRS 431.005 that I have not listed above, please
e-mail me at
cvanbrac@lexingtonky.gov with that information.
Finally, if you can appear at the hearing to
either present information to the Task Force, or to provide a show of support of
this position, please contact me at
cvanbrac@lexingtonky.gov. Once I am advised of the time for my appearance, I
will ask the KPOA to post the information on their website and contact anyone
willing to appear in Frankfort.
Very Respectfully,
Chris VanBrackel
Lieutenant
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Division of Police
SIGN THE
PETITION
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