Jurisdictional boundaries are a thing of the past for more than 20 central Kentucky law enforcement agencies. The Bluegrass and Central Kentucky Unified Police Protection System was officially announced Wednesday.
With police from many counties looking on, Georgetown Police Chief Mike Bosse described BACKUPPS. Bosse says the system allow officers from participating agencies to work across jurisdictional lines. "It just doesn't make sense that we have these imaginary boundaries that a police officer has to stop at, especially when these guys are all trained to the same standards," Bosse said. "So, all we've done is drop those imaginary boundaries, and said you follow that investigation as long as you need to follow it or as far as you need to go with it."
Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton cited a major heroin case, during which officers in Frankfort and Scott County worked together to make arrests and confiscate weapons. "Both communities are better because there is less heroin dealers on the street right now because of the arrests. So, I think that's significant," said Melton. "I think any time you can do that's significant, and the good people win."
John Bizzack is the Department of Criminal Justice Training Commissioner. He says uniform training is what makes the system work. "That reduces considerable liability concerns and it assures we have some uniformity in the way our police values, our standards, our practices and our enforcement is applied across the state," explained Bizzack.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer says a legislative measure could be enacted in February to give police agencies across the state the option to institute similar programs. ?
