Sheriff forms "posse"

On Monday, August 24, Cal Skinner wrote about formation of a posse by McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren, featuring license plate brackets, window decals and lapel pins, which will identify contributors for his political campaign as members of his "posse." Read the article at http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/ Scroll down to Monday's article and graphics.

A good idea? Not hardly. And here's why.

Out in the wild, wild west a posse was a band of deputized citizens and/or deputies holding valid law enforcement powers. Sometimes, townsfolk were deputized for isolated purposes, such as hunting down a horse thief and searching for a missing person.

In other areas, posses were formal components of a sheriff's department, such as the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Posse, in Littleton, Colorado. Volunteer deputies in the Posse were trained and commissioned, and they held full-time commissions and concealed weapons permits. They were on-duty 24/7, just like the full-time, paid deputies. The only difference between the volunteers and the full-timers was the color of their uniform trousers and the lack of a paycheck every month.

Letting a person identify himself as a member of a sheriff's posse, based solely on a financial contribution to a sheriff's political campaign, is a terrible idea that could quite likely lead to abuse by someone with a license plate bracket or lapel pin. I can just hear it now: "I'm part of Sheriff Nygren's posse. Pull over, bud!"

This idea should be scrapped immediately. If it's not, then State law enforcement personnel should investigate the establishment of such a posse.

OK, so this is mostly a "city" area and not the wild, wild west. Maybe that explains the unwise decision. Just a lack of knowledge about the history of sheriffs' departments. Is that it?