A plan to improve the lot of many of Missouri’s most underpaid law enforcement officers draws little opposition in its first vote in the state senate.

They’re the officers who patrol the back roads….the remote places in our counties….often far from other officers they can call for help if they come upon something dangerous. Many of them work for relative peanuts.

They’re sheriff’s deputies…and Senator John Griesheimer’s bill could raise money to improve their salaries. He says deputies in 91 of Missouri’s 114 counties are paid salaries so low they are eligible for welfare benefits. In several of the counties, he says, the deputies also have to buy their uniforms, guns, badges, and other equipment.

Only two Senators vote against his bill to charge an additional ten dollar fee for the service of civil summons, writs, subpoenas or other court orders. The money would be transferred from the county to a state fund then distributed to all counties by a special state commission led by law enforcement officers.

The Senate’s next vote on the bill will send it to the House.\

 

Download Bob Priddy’s story (:60 mp[3)