Board Votes To Mark Police Chief’s Car

Bourbon city council members voted 3-1 on Tuesday to place ghost badging on Police Chief Paul Satterfield’s vehicle and all future vehicles.

Ward 1 Aldermen Dave Lafferty and Tom Jordan, along with Ward 2 Alderwoman Mary Heywood, made the ‘yes’ votes.

Ward 2 Alderman Carl Hammack opposed it. Mayor Danny Skaggs also opposed the measure, citing Satterfield’s work within the drug task force. 

City Attorney Bob Davis also told the board to consider the task force.

“Keep in mind what he has going on,” Davis advised.

Skaggs pointed out to the board that area police chiefs and sheriffs drive in unmarked vehicles. 

“Why do you want the car marked?” he asked the board.

Jordan said marking it would make the car more visible and provide more safety.

“We have a car that we don’t know if it’s ours,” he said. “I worked 19 years in law enforcement. I see the sense in having a marked car.”

Skaggs asked four people who attended the meeting if they had a problem with the issue of a car being marked. None of the four said they did. He then called it a personal issue between some of the aldermen and Satterfield.

“It isn’t,” Jordan said. “It has nothing to do with it.”

Skaggs said marking the chief’s car would not allow him to do his job properly.

“It’s not a safety issue,” he said, adding that the city of Bourbon has a drug problem and that “if keeping that car unmarked brings down cases of people overdosing and selling drugs, we need to stand behind that.”

Satterfield offered any of the board members to participate in a ride along with him to see how he is doing his job. 

“For you guys to speculate on what I’m doing out there, I think is wrong,” he said.

Jordan said nobody was speculating and presented it again as a safety issue. 

Satterfield said he could not understand how marking the car would make it safer.

He said he talked to the Missouri State Highway Patrol and was told unmarked cars were not any less safe. 

The chief also said he talked to the insurance company, which could not prove that unmarked cars led to more claims.

Jordan continued to insist that it was a safety issue.

Heywood said she saw both sides, but thought people liked to see a marked car driving around town.

Lafferty said there is a resident who has a vehicle similar to Satterfield’s. He said he had to do a “double take” at McDonald’s because he didn’t know if it was Satterfield or that resident.

Satterfield pointed out that anyone can buy the same car and that resident can put markings on their vehicle.

“When you go by my house and he goes by my house, I don’t know if it’s you or him,” Lafferty said.

Satterfield said he didn’t understand why that would be an issue.

“If I needed someone I would care,” Lafferty said. 

“Are you going to chase me down?” Satterfield asked. 

Skaggs reiterated that if Satterfield could “save one life” by leaving the car unmarked, it would be worth it. Hammack pointed out Satterfield’s work with the task force has benefits. 

“In this situation, he’s using it not just in public, but in special circumstances as well,” he said.

Lafferty said the city didn’t buy a cop car to be “DEA.”

“If we have a chance to make a difference, if we have a chance to save a life, we have to take it,” Skaggs said.

Both Skaggs and Satterfield said they have not received complaints about the car being unmarked, despite that the board decided to take it to a vote.