Detective Palmiter

Diane Cecil, CID Secretary

The Criminal Investigation Division is headed by Lt. Bill Thompson, who was recently promoted after the appointment of Capt. Jeff Jones as Chief Deputy. Lt. Thompson has over 30 years of Law Enforcement experience, with many of those primarily in general investigations, and narcotics.

This Division has expanded dramatically under the leadership of Sheriff Keith Cain. When Sheriff Cain was in Investigations, he was basically the only investigator at the Sheriff Office. Under his leadership, it has now grown into 6 full time investigators, with two of those investigators assigned exclusively to narcotics enforcement and narcotics related cases.

Members of the narcotics division are also assigned to 2 separate task forces. We have joined forces with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in a joint effort to fight any crime that is committed with a firearm, the theft and/or selling of illegal firearms, and any drug violations that involve the use of firearms or explosive devices.

Since illegal traffickers of controlled substances have no boundaries, we have also joined forces with the Kentucky State Police Drug Enforcement/Special Investigations unit to further enhance our capabilities and our jurisdictional boundaries in trafficking and other narcotics related cases.

On several occasions, the partnership with Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcement Authorities have led to major arrests, seizures, and assets that would have been improbable without the cooperation of and law enforcement tools that are available from these agencies.

With these joint task forces, federal grants and funding have been used to purchase equipment and pay for overtime hours that have saved taxpayers of Daviess County several thousand dollars.

Narcotic violations in general and methamphetamine in particular continue to present a challenge on the Federal, state, and local levels. We have seen a decrease in the active meth labs that are found in Daviess County with the passing of new and very stringent Pseudo Ephedrine laws. That has, however, introduced our local residents with a newer and more potent form of methamphetamine, Crystal Meth. This is now being imported into our community, and presents a new challenge to Law Enforcement.

The new Pseudo Ephedrine Law has also created a much greater work load for our investigators and clerical help. We have “downloaded” into our computer data base over 35000 entries of individuals purchasing Pseudo Ephedrine in our County. This data entry keeps one person busy 3 days a week. Because of these entries, over 40 people have been arrested to date for various narcotic and manufacturing violations.

The general Investigation Division is responsible for the investigation of any felony committed in our community. This includes, but is not limited to Rapes, robberies, major    assaults, murders, burglaries, etc. They also investigate, or assist deputies on other major theft and fraud cases.
Detective Palmiter, Spurrier, and Wilbanks have many years of combined investigative experience that is a great benefit to this department, and to this community.