Request By:
Honorable Roger Wm. Perry
Attorney at Law
908 Poplar Street
Benton, Kentucky 42025
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 8 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"This letter is in confirmation of our telephone conversation of February 4, 1977, in which I put to you the informal question as to whether a Sheriff at the time of the expiration of his term in office would be prevented in any way from being appointed by the Fiscal Court as a member of the County Police Department. It should be assumed that the County Police Department does not have separate facilities but operates out of the office of the County Sheriff.
"Also, if the wife of the form Sheriff were elected to succeed him in office, would the fact that his wife was simultaneously serving as Sheriff in anyway disable him from being a member of the County Police Force?"
We find no legal objection to a sheriff being appointed as a member of the county police force following the expiration of his term.
As you know, the sheriff cannot succeed himself or serve as deputy sheriff during the succeeding term. See § 99 of the Constitution. On the other hand, his being appointed to the county police department would in no way violate the provisions of § 99 of the Constitution or involve the sheriff's office since county police officers are appointed by the county court pursuant to KRS 70.540 and constitute a separate organization.
Also, the fact that the sheriff's wife was elected to succeed him in office would in no way affect his right to serve as a member of the county police force created pursuant to KRS 70.540.