Request By:
Mr. Ted. W. Evans
Chief of Police
City of Frankfort
P.O. Box 697
Frankfort, Kentucky 40602
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of August 12 in which you state that the police department has acquired numerous weapons through the Franklin District Court which ordered the weapons confiscated pursuant to KRS 527.060 and 500.090. Under the circumstances you raise the following question:
"As these weapons are not necessarily the type of weapon issued to our officers and some are not in satisfactory condition, etc., we have discussed the possibility of trading the weapons in for credit toward the purchase of new weapons through vendors from whom we receive police equipment.
Could you advise us of the legality of disposing of the weapons in this manner."
KRS 527.060 provides for the forfeiture of deadly weapons upon the conviction of any individual for violating any law of the Commonwealth and provides that the court shall order the weapons so confiscated sold, destroyed or otherwise disposed of in accordance with KRS 500.090.
KRS 500.090 provides that all property subject to forfeiture shall be disposed of in accordance with the terms of this statute. There are various disposal options detailed which become effective upon the order of the trial court. The pertinent options open to the court that appear to be applicable to your question are: (1) The court can order the weapons destroyed under subsection (1)(a); (2) Sold at public auction under subsection (b)(3); (3) Retained for official use by the agency of the county, city or urban county government that seizes them, or; (4) Ordered abandoned and returned to the lawful claimants. However, any property sold must be disposed of only after appropriate advertisement pursuant to Chapter 424 KRS. Section (3) of the statute.
Since the disposal of all forfeited property is limited to those methods specified in KRS 500.090 and none of the disposal methods allow the property to be traded as credit on the purchase of, in this case, new weapons, we do not believe that such procedure can legally be followed.
In other words it would appear that the weapons would have to be sold at public auction duly advertised as provided in Chapter 424 KRS, and the money derived therefrom that the city would be entitled to retain could then be used for the purchase of new weapons.