County smoking ban now includes vehicles
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
The Nodaway County Commission stiffened its employee tobacco use policy last week, extending an existing ban on cigarettes, cigars and pipes in county buildings to chewing tobacco and further prohibiting the use of tobacco products in county-owned vehicles.
The Nodaway County Commission stiffened its employee tobacco use policy last week, extending an existing ban on cigarettes, cigars and pipes in county buildings to chewing tobacco and further prohibiting the use of tobacco products in county-owned vehicles.
County employees will still be permitted to smoke during breaks provided they remain outside and at least ten feet from the entrance of their workplace, and refrain from fouling the area where they light up with cigarette butts or other traces of tobacco use.
The prohibition on smoking in county vehicles and the use of chewing tobacco in cars and trucks and inside county buildings followed a discussion between the three commissioners and Sheriff Darren White.
Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker said the governing board has received citizen complaints with regard to deputies smoking on duty in their cars. Walker added that smoking inside cars potentially exposes prisoners to second-hand smoke and lowers the resale value of county vehicles.
“It just doesn’t look good,” Walker said. “It doesn’t need to be.”
In addition to cigarettes, cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco, the ban also applies to electronic cigarettes, which introduce nicotine into the body via aerosol vapor.
White said he supported the more-stringent policy, adding that the use of chewing tobacco inside the jail has created cleanliness and hygiene issues.
On other fronts, White and the commissioners talked about plans to acquire video cameras to be carried by deputies while on duty. The sheriff, who has been asked by the commission to draft a camera-use policy, said he will likely require deputies to turn the cameras on any time they interact with citizens.
White said he has been in contact with a vendor who has agreed to provide several cameras on a trial basis. Eventually, he said, the county plans to purchase a total of 13 cameras using $15,000 set aside in this year’s General Revenue budget.
North District Commissioner Robert Westfall said a number of details regarding the use of body-mounted cameras by deputies remain to be worked out, including constitutional questions with regard to searches when deputies find themselves responding to calls on private property.
Body-mounted cameras are becoming more common for law-enforcement agencies and have been used by Maryville Public Safety officers for some time.
Westfall said the county is seeking to be proactive with regard to cameras, adding that he believes the devices will soon become standard equipment for all law enforcement officers.
“Sooner or later it will be something that we have to do,” Westfall said, noting that making a video record of arrests and other law-enforcement activities will provide legal safeguards for citizens and deputies alike.
“It’s for the protection of both, I think,” Westfall said.
Finally, White and the commissioners discussed plans for selling five high-mileage Sheriff’s Department vehicles to be disposed of later this year by either auction or sealed bid. White said the vehicles include three Ford Crown Victorias, a Ford Explorer SUV and a pickup truck.
