We believe this agreement is beneficial to both Magazine and Logan County because a police department of one full-time officer and one part-time officer now becomes part of bigger agency with established policies and procedures, in-service training, a supervision structure, and our incident reporting and review system. The Magazine deputies will attend more training every year including three firearm trainings which includes one qualification and two combat shoots (the state only requires one qualification) and in-service training such as leadership, evidence, and basic criminal investigations. Under our sex offender compliance check policy, Magazine deputies will increase their sex offenders compliance checks. They become part of our incident report and review system. In our system, our supervisors and criminal investigators review our deputies' incident reports, body camera footage, and case files that are turned in to see if other actions need to be taken on them and if the proper charges are being requested. This produces better case files for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office to use. Also, since the Sheriff's Office patrols the City of Magazine when the members of the Magazine Police Department are not on duty, having the officers as part of our team will increase cooperation and information sharing.

 

When the previous police chief took another job a few months ago, I (Sheriff Jason Massey) felt like this was an opportunity to do something different for Magazine so we put a proposal together and presented it to the Magazine City Council and Mayor in February. This proposal was based on interlocal agreements that are common in other states and in Izard County, Arkansas. After discussion, we created an agreement that was signed by Mayor Stanley McConnell, County Judge Ray Gack, and I and then it was ratified by the City Council and Quorum Court earlier this month. Under the agreement, the City of Magazine retains ownership of all of the property including the vehicles, equipment, firearms, etc. The money that the City used to pay the police chief is now sent to Logan County to pay the Magazine Sergeant. The City will continue to pay Jim Elkins directly. This is a yearly agreement so if the either party wants to end the agreement, then Magazine still owns all of the property and equipment and they just stop paying Logan County for the Magazine Sergeant and then can pay the police chief directly so neither party is out anything and things can easily go back as they previously were.

We are very excited about this and we are honored with the trust that the Magazine Mayor and City Council put in us to sign this agreement.

 

We are already working with the Magazine School District on an agreement for school security for the buildings, crosswalks, and games. If you have driven past the Magazine Schools this year, you have seen our increased presence at the schools and that is another example of trust in our agency.

 

We will have another post next week when the new Magazine Sergeant and the part-time deputy are officially sworn in. In the post, we will introduce the new Magazine Sergeant.

 

- Sheriff Jason Massey