Editorial

CRIMINALS CAN HELP FUND LAW ENFORCEMENT

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A Sept. 3 decision by a state commission has halted the practice of requiring criminals to pay money into a county law enforcement fund as a condition of probation. The Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges last month advised judges against requiring defendants to pay money county crime reduction funds. The commission said there was no state law or constitutional provision allowing for payments. As a result, judges have stopped ordering convicts to pay into the fund.

Commissioners said the state's Constitution provides that "all penalties, forfeitures and fines collected" for violations of the state's penal laws be distributed annually to local school districts.

The ruling jeopardizes one source of funding for local law enforcement in Missouri counties, say officials in Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties. In Cape Girardeau County, the fund generates about $100,000 a year. Payments to the special law enforcement fund generates about $13,000 in Bollinger County. The money goes to buy equipment for law enforcement personnel. Losing such funds is an especially tough blow for financially strapped smaller counties such as our neighbors to the west.

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said he expects the sheriffs and prosecutors associations and the Missouri Association of Counties to lobby the General Assembly for legislation to restore the funding system. Bollinger County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Hopkins is circulating a petition asking lawmakers to allow counties to have local control of fines imposed on criminals. Jordan says the fund has helped make the Cape County Sheriff's Department the best equipped in the region since its creation 10 years ago.

All these arguments mean lawmakers will likely lend a sympathetic ear to the appeals of county officials for corrective action in the 1999 session of the Legislature. Lawmakers will need to satisfy themselves whether legislation can correct the situation, or whether it will take a constitutional amendment that would have to be approved by the voters.