Aid agreements are with Highfill, Decatur, Gravette and Benton County Sheriff's Office.
GENTRY -- Gentry City Council, at its March 3 meeting, authorized by resolution the chief of police and the mayor to enter into mutual aid agreements with the cities of Highfill, Decatur and Gravette and with the Benton County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services.
According to Keith Smith, Gentry chief of police, the departments already assist each other but an agreement would offer the departments and officers a more firm legal basis and provide legal protection to officers and their departments.
The approved mutual aid agreement outlines how mutual aid is to be requested and approved and gives officers legal powers to make arrests and carry out law enforcement duties when requested to do so in a jurisdiction outside of their own home jurisdiction.
The agreement gives chiefs (and the sheriff) or their designees the power to request mutual aid and to determine the extent of aid offered by their departments. Officers who respond to mutual aid requests are under the command of the requesting agency but must act under the policies and procedures of their home employing agency.
No reimbursement is required of agencies requesting mutual aid unless one or more outside agencies are reimbursed for their services. Then all assisting agencies are to be reimbursed.
The agreement provides legal protection to both the sending and receiving agencies in the event an officer is injured or killed or equipment is damaged when aid is provided.
For a full text of the agreement, contact Gentry City Hall or the Gentry Police Department.
General News on 03/12/2014