Peace, puppies, and pure crap.

    The historical role of the Sussex County Sheriff has always been to maintain good order and preserve the peace. As a conservator of the peace and the supreme law enforcement entity many other tasks fell on the sheriff. Since 1669 the Sheriff of Sussex County has always been empowered to make arrests.

     Up until the 1940's the Sheriff of Sussex County was very active in peace keeping. In the 1950s and 1960s the role of the Sheriff in making arrests became less prominent but arrests were still made. In the 1970s the office gradually came to be mostly concerned with foreclosures, process serving, Sheriff's sales and the odd prisoner transport.

    Then in the early 1980s the Sheriff became an active peace officer once more.  According to the Police Chief's Council Administrator who maintains that the Sheriff has no power to arrest, and the pro-Sheriff movement that insists that the Sheriff can and should make arrests, that's when the battle over Sheriff Powers began.

    So one thing is clear. Saying that the Sheriff traditionally has not had the power of arrest is a flat out lie, that's the pure crap.

  In the Delaware State Constitution, Sheriffs are conservators of the peace in the counties in which they reside. Under title 9 section 302(a) of the State Code, Sheriffs are not part of the County Government. Current mental gymnastics seem to revolve around what the definition of the word 'is' is. Literally. In forty seven states, the definition of conservator of the peace in the context of Sheriff is not 'undefined'.

  Discuss this issue with any anti-Sheriff activist long enough and it comes down to 'this is Delaware'. Not uncommonly a suggestion to pack up and leave if you don't like it will be included free of charge. Eerily similar to statements by anti-civil rights activists in Mississippi circa 1962. So much for peace.

  This is a civil rights issue. When the people can't elect a Sheriff to be anything other than an errand boy for the bankers, that's an issue. We are then left at the mercy of a Police State. A thorough investigation of complaints against the Delaware State Police and some decent investigative reporting would be helpful.

  Unfortunately, most of our media reads press releases as if Moses himself delivered them on tablets of stone. Adversarial press regarding statements by our Staties is difficult to come by.

  Then we come to puppies. The same attorney general who maintains that the traditional role of the Sheriff has never been making arrests, ( cough cough cough ) has also issued an opinion affirming the wide range of law enforcement powers given to members and agents of the Kent Couny SPCA and the Delaware SPCA.

  In fact animal control officers have full DELJEIS ( electronic information systems of the department of justice, wants, warrants, criminal records, etc., etc..) access and email addresses from DOJ. The dog catchers have law enforcement powers but the Sheriffs don't. Puppies.

 Next post we will start with the Sussex County Council report in support of stripping the Sheriff of arrest powers. The pure crap.

By Doug Beatty, copyright 2012 all rights reserved.