TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas House has approved a measure aimed at ensuring that counties don't stop electing their sheriffs.
The vote Wednesday was 97-24 on a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution declaring that sheriffs are elected to four-year terms. The constitution now says only that lawmakers will create county offices "as may be necessary."
The measure had far more than the two-thirds majority necessary for passage in the House. If the measure passes the Senate, it will go on the ballot in November for voters' possible approval.
Backers said electing sheriffs makes them more accountable to voters. Opponents said counties should be allowed to decide how to manage law enforcement.
Under the proposed language, legislators could no longer change how sheriffs are selected by law. Counties have been electing sheriffs since 1857, four years before Kansas was admitted to the Union.
Riley County in northeast Kansas is the only one of the state's 105 counties to move to an appointed law enforcement agency director, having consolidated its sheriff's department with two city police departments in 1974. A commission in Johnson County recently considered but did not advance a proposal for an appointed sheriff there.
The proposed amendment would allow Riley County to keep its current system or change back to an elected sheriff.
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