Request By:
Mr. Michael H. Diehl
Division of Criminal Justice
Bluegrass Area Development District, Inc.
120 East Reynolds Road
Lexington, Kentucky 40503
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter stating that several units of government within the Bluegrass Area Development District, Inc. (BGADD) seek to upgrade police services in the area of narcotic enforcement. This will be accomplished by having BGADD receive on their behalf a L.E.A.A. grant to provide funds for the project. Each local unit of government will forward to BGADD their proportionate share of money to provide the necessary match funds to be applied to the grant.
Once the grant is made, your office will then contract with the Kentucky State Police to provide the increased narcotic enforcement services. In essence, BGADD will act on behalf of the participating local government to secure the L.E.A.A. grant and then enter into the subsequent contractual agreement for services.
Your specific question is whether the local governments need to execute interlocal government agreements (KRS 65.210 to 65.300) to enter into the proposed contractual agreement for services with the state.
From the information you have furnished, the local units of government would not have to execute interlocal agreements among themselves as there is no cooperative undertaking involved. The question is whether the proposed contractual arrangements between the state agency and the individual units of local government constitute a cituation whereby an interlocal agreement is involved as contemplated by KRS 65.210 to 65.300.
The Interlocal Cooperation Act is a device whereby governmental units (including political subdivisions of the state and agencies of the state government) may jointly exercise their powers on a basis of mutual advantage and thus provide services and facilities in a more efficient, economical and beneficial manner than they could individually. Of course, only those powers which can be exercised individually can be exercised collectively.
An interlocal agreement is utilized where cooperative action in the utilization of peace officers and police department members is needed. Governmental units can take advantage of the extra territorial police power authorized in KRS 65.255. While in the performance of their duties, under an interlocal agreement, police officers outside their own city or county shall have the full power of arrest and all other powers they possess in their own city or county. Furthermore, police officers are officers of the governmental entity in which they serve but under an interlocal agreement, for example, police officers involved in a cooperative undertaking between a city and a county or two cities can avoid the prohibitions in KRS 61.080 and Section 165 of the Kentucky Constitution against a person being, at the same time, a county officer and a city officer or an officer in two different cities. As a member of a cooperative or joint police unit involving two or more governmental entities they are not considered as members of two or more separate governmental units. Those same statutory and constitutional authorities mentioned above also prohibit a person from serving at the same time as a state officer and an officer of any city or county.
In our opinion, under the factual situation you have presented, the arrangements under consideration do not represent cooperative and joint exercises of police power requiring the utilization of the provisions of the Interlocal Cooperation Act. The local governments are merely contracting for increased narcotic enforcement activities by the State Police who will provide the law enforcement work contemplated and apparently are in the best position to do so because of training, experience and facilities available. The project under consideration does not involve any type of cooperative undertaking between state and city police personnel beyond what would normally be anticipated and expected between different law enforcement agencies. Since state police personnel will provide the specialized services in their capacity as state police officers and will not be serving in the capacity of police officers for the local units of government, the local governments are not providing general police services outside of the authority set forth in KRS Chapter 95.