AGO 1993-068.

• Case Date: December 21, 1993
• Court: Ohio

Ohio Attorney General Opinions 1993. AGO 1993-068. December 21, 1993OPINION NO. 1993-068The Honorable Robert D. Horowitz Stark County Prosecuting Attorney P.O. Box 20049 Canton, Ohio 44701-0049 Dear Prosecutor Horowitz: You have requested an opinion regarding the implementation of a drug awareness program in a local school district. Specifically, you ask whether R.C. 505.43 authorizes a township to enter into a contract with a municipal corporation or county sheriff for the services of a police officer or deputy sheriff to implement within a local school district that serves the township a program designed to educate children with respect to the dangers associated with the use of illicit drugs.

R.C. 505.43

R.C. 505.43, which empowers a township to contract for police protection services, provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

In order to obtain police protection, or to obtain additional police protection in times of emergency, any township may enter into a contract with one or more townships, municipal corporations, park districts created pursuant to section 511.18 or 1545.01 of the Revised Code, or county sheriffs or with a governmental entity of an adjoining state upon any terms that are agreed to by them, for services of police departments or use of police equipment, or the interchange of the service of police departments or use of police equipment within the several territories of the contracting subdivisions, if the contract is first authorized by respective boards of township trustees or other legislative bodies. The cost of the contract may be paid for from the township general fund or from funds received pursuant to the passage of a levy authorized pursuant to division (J) of section 5705.19 and section 5705.25 of the Revised Code. (Emphasis added.)

Thus, a township may, in order to obtain police protection, enter into a contract with a municipal corporation or county sheriff for the services of police officers or deputy sheriffs. Accordingly, if the implementation of a program designed to educate children with respect to the dangers associated with the use of illicit drugs constitutes "police protection," as that term is used in R.C. 505.43, a township may enter into a contract with a municipal corporation or county sheriff for a law enforcement officer to implement that drug awareness program...