Manderson Police Chief questions increase in dispatch fees and disputes statements made about his department

Manderson Police Chief BJ Kidgell spoke to the county commissioners at their Oct. 3 meeting. He wanted to address his concerns and observations about a proposed increase in fees and comments that had been made at a commission meeting in August.
With Kidgell was Manderson Clerk of Court Janet Reasoner and Police Officer Steve Coleman. Kidgell handed out a transcript of a message from Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn from March 14, 2023.  He also shared a letter from Blackburn dated April 5, 2023 and a letter from the town attorney to the county attorney dated June 29, 2023.  
Kidgell said he has been the chief for more than three years. During this time Blackburn has never talked to Kidgell about overloading dispatch, deputies not being able to talk on the radio because of the numerous Manderson calls, etc. These issues were mentioned at the August commissioner meeting. “The only thing that Sheriff Blackburn has said to me about dispatch was left on a voicemail,” said Kidgell, who  played the recording.  
In the message Blackburn addressed a rumor he had heard about Kidgell “sniffing around and recruiting out of the jail” for officers. If this was true, he would like to speak to the chief. If it wasn’t true, he told Kidgell not to worry about it.
The second part of the message addressed dispatch fees. In part it said, “I’ll be giving you my dispatch bill and it’s going to go up. Comparatively for everyone you try to take or everyone that comes and tells me that you’re (trying) to recruit out of there.”
Kidgell said the voicemail was out of the blue to him as this was the first-time dispatch fees were brought up. At the time the voicemail was left, Manderson had two open positions for officers. The chief said eight or nine qualified candidates applied, which he called great since other law enforcement agencies can’t get one applicant. Kidgell stated “I can tell you right now, I didn’t ask anybody to apply for my two positions.  I didn’t recruit anybody to apply for my two positions.”
He went on to say that he did have people come talk to him about pay, salary, benefits, and retirement. (The two positions were eventually filled by Coleman and Darold Newman. Both were previously employed at the sheriff’s office.) Kidgell said at the time the message was received, the cost of dispatch to the town of Manderson was $8,000.
The letter received in April from Blackburn noted that the dispatching fees for the
upcoming 2023-24 fiscal year would be $25,000, and that they would increase for the 2024-25 year as well.
The reasons for the increase were explained as “due to increases in equipment and personnel cost and call volume this will assist with bringing the fees Manderson pays more in line with what the other municipalities that we provide dispatch services for pay.”
Kidgell stated he didn’t understand what the increase in equipment would be. He continued, “We felt that the increase in dispatch fees was solely based on the fact that Sheriff Blackburn heard that I was recruiting out of the jail, which is absolutely not true. We felt it was unfair that it would go up so drastically when we are a small agency. That just takes a huge hit of our budget.”
He then directed the commissioners to the letter written by the town’s attorney, Jerry Williams. Kidgell said that Williams had found some federal court cases that state what is going on is wrong. “The town is prepared to move forward on any type of action we need to make this stuff right.” He added that the county attorney Marcia Bean and Williams have been corresponding. The town has not received a bill for that higher dispatch fees at this point.
DISPUTE OF COMMENTS
Kidgell addressed some of the comments that were made about the Manderson PD during a commissioner meeting on August 15. He wishes that someone from Manderson would have been asked to attend the meeting.  “People said stuff that was not true. If one of us would have been here to set the record right, I felt that would have been fair.” Instead, he read about it in the newspaper.
Some of those comments were that citations were given for four miles over the speed limit, additional tickets were added on to the speeding citations for broken windshield, failure to come to a complete stop and no turn signal.
Kidgell explained he was taught that the average person goes 2-3 mph over the speed limit, the average speedometer 2-3 mph over the speed limit and the department’s radar units are plus or minus 1 mph. This gives a threshold of 7 mph, so they don’t issue citations under 7 mph. They also have the best radar equipment. It is calibrated every other year. There are also radar checks before and after each shift. He does his after every stop.
“We are doing what we are supposed to do. We see a vehicle. We visually estimate the speed of that vehicle. We unlock our radar. Hear the tone of the radar, see the speed of the radar, then lock it in to issue a citation. We issue citations because I was taught citations change behavior and warnings do not.”
When addressing other comments that were made at the August commissioner meeting, Kidgell said the department does stop people for broken headlights, brake lights, etc., because people don’t take care of their vehicles. There is a state law that allows officers to pull people over for probable cause, but Manderson Police typically doesn’t write tickets for these.
They do give out citations for running stop signs. Many of the ones they give are when they are behind a vehicle trying to pull them over. Those vehicles don’t come to a stop at the stop sign at Wyoming Highway 31 and U.S. Highway 16-20. They pull out in front of traffic on U.S. 16-20. It is a safety issue.
He explained that the PD has been asked not to make back-to-back traffic stops. This was requested by undersheriff Blaine Jolley a while back. He said the officers still make back-to-back stops but don’t call dispatch on the second one. “We tried to lessen the burden on dispatch that way.”
Kidgell also stated that recently his department has been asked not to run driver’s license checks. This request was made by the county’s dispatch supervisor. “Not calling a traffic stop and not being able to run people’s drivers license is a huge officer safety issue. On traffic stops, officers get injured/killed all the time.” He continued that when driver’s licenses are run, a lot of information is found out including warrants, status of licenses, concealed weapon permits, probation, etc.
“Those are the kind of things we need to know on traffic stops. Then we’re asked not to run the driver’s license checks,” said Kidgell. He invited the commissioner or anyone that has concerns about what the Manderson PD does to ride along with them. This will give people a better idea on how many and how fast people go through the town.
Kidgell also clarified that the town has three full time officers and two part time officers. He thanked the commissioners for the time they allowed him to speak and explain why he doesn’t feel the raising of the fees was fair.
Commissioner Chair Bruce Jolley responded. “The reason we talked about Manderson’s tickets, it’s because we are like a complaint department. Sometimes it’s a phone call, e-mail, it’s usually out of state folks. We know there is nothing we can do. We tell them we can’t do anything for them. We’ve given out town hall (Manderson) phone numbers. It wasn’t until I got an email from the colonel from the highway patrol asking if Big Horn County couldn’t do something about this Manderson situation, speed trap or however they put it.”
The email contained a complaint from a couple who had received a citation in Manderson. Jolley wondered why the colonel would send it to the county. He continued that the complaint had been sent originally to the Wyoming Transportation Committee. The email from the colonel was the only reason the commissioners talked about Manderson.
Jolley continued that “it has never been put to the commission, that I’m aware of, that because of what is going on there with tickets, that that’s going to affect the price of dispatch. That’s up to Ken. We give him a budget and we expect him to follow the budget. Part of that budget is what he collects in dispatch fees.” He added that the commission would not weigh in on the discussion between Williams and Bean.
Kidgell asked for a copy of the letter from the colonel be sent to him. Jolley said he would send it. Kidgell, Reasoner and Coleman left.
 The commissioners along with Sheriff Ken Blackburn, Lt. Mark Raymond and Sergeant Craig Shidler went into an executive session.
OTHER BUSINESS
• The Road/Bridge and Engineering department updates were given.
•  An update was given on land planning.
• There was a Zoom call between the commissioners and Tin Fearneybough from WIC regarding recruitment for a clinic supervisor.