Time: Thu Jun 19 09:09:07 1997
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	Thu, 19 Jun 1997 09:01:26 -0700 (MST)
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Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 08:59:48 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Utah sheriffs take on feds. (fwd)

<snip>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Utah Sheriffs Lose a Round To Federal Cops
>>
>>  BY BRENT ISRAELSEN
>>  THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
>>      
>>      Federal land-management agencies can continue to arrest 
>>people on state charges -- at
>>  least for two more months. 
>>      On Tuesday, to the chagrin of rural Utah sheriffs, the 
>>state Council on Peace Officer
>>  Standards and Training (POST) did not rescind state police 
>>power it grants to
>>  law-enforcement officers of the U.S. Forest Service and the 
>>Bureau of Land Management. 
>>      Instead, the 17-member council -- composed of sheriffs, 
>>police chiefs and political figures
>>  from around the state -- voted to send the issue to a 
>>committee and to newly appointed
>>  POST director Sid Groll for further study. 
>>      Groll said he will bring a recommendation to the 
>>council for its next meeting in August. 
>>      Led by Millard County Sheriff Ed Phillips, rural 
>>sheriffs urged the council Tuesday to take
>>  away federal officers' state police powers. 
>>      Relying largely on anecdotal testimony, the sheriffs 
>>cited several reasons for wanting to
>>  relieve the feds of state authority: 
>>      -- The federal police overstep their bounds by pro-
>>actively enforcing state criminal law. 
>>      -- They are poorly trained in state law. 
>>      -- They are not accountable. 
>>      But the underlying rationale appears to be a 
>>fundamental question of states' rights vis-a-vis
>>  the federal government. 
>>      According to Phillips' view of the Constitution, Uncle 
>>Sam is responsible for protecting
>>  the nation from foreign invasion, while local sheriffs are 
>>charged with keeping people within
>>  the borders from hurting each other. 
>>      ``The citizens elected 29 sheriffs in this state,'' 
>>Phillips said. ``Utah citizens did not elect
>>  [Interior Secretary] Bruce Babbitt or [Acting BLM Director] 
>>Sylvia Baca to run law
>>  enforcement here in Utah.'' 
>>      With about 30 officers between them, the BLM and Forest 
>>Service enforce federal laws
>>  and regulations on nearly 30 million acres -- or 56 percent 
>>-- of land in Utah. 
>>      Often finding themselves on the defensive, BLM and 
>>Forest Service law-enforcement
>>  representatives told the POST Council they do not have the 
>>interest or staff to conduct
>>  criminal investigations. They want state police authority 
>>only to protect them from civil
>>  liability in emergency situations and to help local police 
>>keep the peace on public lands. 
>>      ``We're not here [in Utah] as a takeover, conspiracy 
>>force,'' said Mac Thomson, who
>>  heads law enforcement for the Forest Service in Utah. 
>>      Thomson and Keith Aller, special agent in charge of BLM 
>>law enforcement in Utah, said
>>  if the rural sheriffs have trouble with a particular 
>>federal officer, they should air their
>>  grievances with BLM superiors. 
>>      But some rural sheriffs said airing grievances often is 
>>difficult because of the decentralized
>>  or inaccessible chain-of-command in the federal land-
>>management agencies. 
>>      Though most of Tuesday's discussion centered on state 
>>authority granted to the BLM and
>>  Forest Service, POST Councilman Lee Allen, a Box Elder 
>>County commissioner, said
>>  National Park Service rangers often are heavy-handed in 
>>their enforcement. 
>>      Directing his remarks to the feds in attendance, Allen 
>>said, ``Just tell your folks, `For
>>  heck's sake, back off and think a little bit and use common 
>>sense.' '' 
>>      In an interview afterward, Groll said he favors a 
>>change in the Utah statute that delineates
>>  how federal agencies are granted state police authority. 
>>Groll, a former Cache County
>>  sheriff, said he would like to see that decision rest with 
>>each county sheriff. 
>
>>Posted for personal non-profit research and edcuational purposes.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
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========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell                 : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA;  M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine

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