Paducah Sun Newspaper: Kentucky Needs A Real Bureau Of Investigation.

The Paducah Sun/Editorial

KGBI

Kentucky needs a real bureau of investigation

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Russians have a favorite saying: “There’s no such thing as an ex-KGB officer.” The official disbanding of Russia’s notorious spy agency only made the adage more popular among deeply cynical Russians.
Let’s hope the same thing is not true about the Commonwealth’s KGB, as it was referred to by members of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration after former Attorney General Greg Stumbo created the agency.

Stumbo, of course, named it the KBI, Kentucky Bureau of Investigation, a misnomer if ever there was one. Stumbo used it as his personal police force in his unblinkingly partisan opposition to Republicans in general and Fletcher in particular.
Now that Stumbo, having failed to achieve higher office, has reclaimed his seat in the legislature, his successor, Attorney General Jack Conway, has dissolved the rogue agency. Not that he calls it a rogue agency. But Conway does admit that the title was misleading, since most legitimate state bureaus of investigation work with other law enforcement agencies to investigate all types of crime, not merely the crime of being an elected Republican.

“The KBI wasn’t working as well with the Kentucky State Police as I wanted it to,” Conway said, thus ensuring he would run away with the 2008 Understatement of the Year Award.

The truth is, Kentucky could use a real bureau of investigation like those in neighboring states, under the executive branch and with professional investigators bringing education in law, chemistry, psychology and other specialties to complement their training in criminal justice. The Kentucky State Police has botched too many investigations — including, in far western Kentucky, an unsolved 1998 arson death at Murray State and the unsolved 1996 murder of Bobbi Holman Williams — due to lack of expertise or failure to cooperate with other agencies.
Conway has reassigned those KBI officers to do real investigative work in specialized units of the Attorney General’s Office — cyber crimes, drug investigations and identity theft.

But Conway has also inclued one branch for “special investigation and public integrity.” Public integrity? Let’s hope that’s not a holdover from Greg Stumbo’s KGB.