Wanted: Legal adviser.

Must be willing to field inquiries and respond to crime scenes at a moment’s notice 24 hours a day.

The Lawrence Police Department is seeking the nod from the city commission to spend about $51,500 to hire a full-time legal adviser. A request was included in the department’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2003.

“Investigations are becoming so complex we need somebody in-house to advise us on those issues,” Lt. Dan Affalter said.

If one is hired, a legal adviser would be a departmental staff attorney with a specialty in criminal law, Affalter said. Officers could receive direct legal advice in handling arrests and searches and seizures.

“Officers working on a drug case late at night might have a question about probable cause for obtaining a search warrant,” Affalter said.

A legal adviser also would handle paperwork involved in property seizures resulting from drug arrests, conduct research on legal issues and be ready to respond to crime scenes.

“We need someone who is available 24-7,” Affalter said.

About 10 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings that made it difficult for prosecutors to give law enforcement agencies legal advice in criminal cases, Douglas County Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney said.

“We can decide if we have enough to prosecute a case but we can’t give advice to the police department,” she said. “We do what we can to help.”

Lawrence Police either make the legal calls themselves or call on outside advice, sometimes from attorney Gerald Cooley, who primarily handles civil matters for City Hall, Affalter said.

Failure to finance a legal adviser position would require the department to continue to rely on outside counsel and would reduce ability to address concerns in a timely manner, Chief Ron Olin wrote in his budget proposal.

City commissioners are studying budget proposals from various departments, and no decisions have been made.

Douglas County Sheriff Rick Trapp, who is an attorney and former prosecutor, handles legal duties for his department.

Trapp said he also would like to hire a legal adviser. He said he didn’t have time to do all the things an adviser could do and handle sheriff duties, too. Legal issues at the jail are an added responsibility the Sheriff’s Office has to be concerned about, he said.

“Departments the size of ours and the Police Department should have their own legal adviser,” Trapp said. “It’s certainly in my plans. With the budget crunch in the county and the state, I don’t think it’s a viable possibility this year.”