Over strenuous objections from Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning, Carroll commissioners have moved forward with plans to create a countywide police force and scale back the sheriff?s role.
Tregoning argues the commissioners decided on a police force instead of expanding the sheriff?s office because they wanted the power to appoint a chief.
“It?s purely about appointment authority and control,” said Lt. Phil Kasten, a spokesman for the sheriff?s office. “You have to question it.”
Tregoning also complained that the commissioners had decided to create the force without having public hearings.
A police chief would be hired and fired by a vote of two of the three commissioners, and the chief would set the rules of the department.
But if a bill sponsored by Del. Donald Elliott, R-District 4B, passes in the General Assembly, the board would be expanded to five commissioners, and four votes would be required to pick the chief.
Under the bill, four commissioners would each represent a district, and one commissioner would be at-large.
If four commissioners had to agree on a police chief, Commissioner Dean Minnich said, it would reduce the politics of the appointment.
“We aren?t a pure democracy,” Minnich said. “We are a representative republic. I feel much more comfortable with four out of five thanI do with two out of three.”
But Commissioner Michael Zimmer said a simple majority should be required, so if the board were expanded to five commissioners, it would only take three to pick a police chief.
“I look at the police chief as no different from any other position,” Zimmer said. “If he?s not doing his job, we got to get rid of him.”
Tregoning wants a referendum so voters would decide the future of policing, Kasten said.
