Clay Approves New Law Enforcement Retiree Policy

Clay County Commissioners have approved a new policy that will allow law enforcement retirees to retain service weapons and badges upon retirement.

Clay County Sheriff Brandon Boone said the policy exists amongst many different law enforcement agencies. Boone said the policy is a way the county can let an officer know their service was appreciated.

“When a law enforcement officer puts their time in and serves their community and their county that’s good and credible service I feel like that’s something that we can do for them,” Boone said. “It’s not much but it’s something that we can do for them that they can remember.”

Boone said officers tend to keep badges of different ranks they have received throughout their career and keeping their badge after retiring would be a great way to display the end of an officer’s career. Boone said he wanted the policy to be implemented now as it is rare for a law enforcement officer to retire in Clay County.

“We’ve just not ever had law enforcement officers retire here at this agency,” Boone said. “A lot of people obviously with elections sometimes positions change and people move to different departments but we actually have one who has got the years of service in and he is going to retire.”

Boone said keeping the badge and the weapon would be of no charge to the officer. Boone said the cost of the weapon would be covered by the county.

“The county would replace that one weapon which averages probably around $400,” Boone said. “It would not cost the retirees anything and so the county would replace it out of my budget.”

Boone said he does not worry about the policy becoming a problem budget-wise as not many officers retire in Clay County.