Have you heard of the “Kansas Constitutional Amendment 2, County Sheriff Election and Recall Amendment (2022)?
If you vote “YES” on Kansas Amendment 2, it would allow the voting citizens of their respected counties to preserve the right to vote for the office of Sheriff. This would also allow the voting citizens to involuntarily remove a Sheriff from office only pursuant to either a recall election, or an ouster proceeding initiated by the Attorney General.
In Kansas, there are 105 counties, and 104 have elected Sheriff’s put into office by the citizens of their counties. Riley County, KS is the 1 county in Kansas that has consolidated their law enforcement agency. A “NO” vote would allow counties to consolidate their Sheriff’s office if they decided to do so. If that happened, the office of Sheriff would be taken away from the voting power of the people.
If consolidated, the county board of commissioners, not the people, would be able to appoint the Sheriff. Doing this would make the Sheriff directly responsible to the county board of commissioners and not directly responsible to the people.
There are approximately 62,421 residents in Reno County. Do you want 5 people to decide who should be your Sheriff?
The office of Sheriff dates back to over 1,000 years to early England. There are two important characteristics that distinguish the office of Sheriff from other law enforcement agencies. 1. The historical roots, 2. Its direct accountability to citizens through the election of Sheriff. A vote YES this November 8th on Amendment 2 would keep the office of Sheriff directly accountable to its citizens through elections. YOU, the voter, are in the driver’s seat to ensure accountability! Why would you want to strip yourself of that power?
Darrian Campbell
Reno County Sheriff