First upload! Local sheriff's office and highway patrol butting heads. Guy being pulled over is our local chief deputy who was called out early in the morning to track down a suspected murderer. Just would like to know people's thoughts on this... Sheriff's office is slamming the highway patrol for their actions that night, I feel the chief deputy was way out of line. Funny part of the story is neither the county sheriff's office nor the highway patrol made the arrest, the city police did. Here's a text version of the story to go with the dashcam footage and link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIY9LMlLJxo
I apologize in advance for the commentary from the local news station :/

MARION - A confrontation between officers has led to communication concerns stemming from the April search for murder suspect Tane Osborne.

The concerns involve whether an Ohio Highway Patrol cruiser following an unmarked Marion County Sheriff's administrator's car could have hampered a surveillance operation.

On April 24, as officers were searching for the suspect in a West Jefferson murder, a patrol cruiser followed a sports utility vehicle near Green Camp. The vehicle abruptly pulled off the road and Marion County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Al Hayden jumped out, waving troopers away.

Troopers, who had activated their dash cam, asked Hayden if he had been drinking. Hayden answered that he had a drink earlier in the evening before he went to sleep.

He excitedly told them to leave the area because deputies believed Osborne was at a house nearby, and they planned to set up surveillance.

No charges were filed against Hayden.

The focus has become the need for better communication. Sheriff Tim Bailey is questioning whether the cruiser should have been in the area of the Owens-Green Camp Road surveillance.

"They busted a stakeout," Bailey said Friday.

The confrontation

Osborne, 24, was a suspect in the April 23 shooting death of Paige Young, 21. West Jefferson law enforcement issued a statewide alert and indicated he may head to Marion, where he formerly lived.

A Marion police officer eventually found him in north Marion, but earlier in the morning of April 24 the sheriff's office got a tip saying he was possibly at a house in Green Camp.

Bailey said he called Hayden, who lives "30 seconds" away, at about 12:30 a.m. and woke him up to tell him to drive down and set up a surveillance until more officers could get there.

Lt. Ann Ralston, a spokeswoman for the patrol, said troopers also were in the area because of the murder suspect. She said they followed Hayden's vehicle because it had no lights on.

They turned their emergency lights on after he pulled off the road.

She referred to the video, which shows Hayden shouting and swearing at the troopers as one asked if he had been drinking.

The video shows Hayden saying he had an officer with night vision staking out the house nearby.

"You need to get the hell out of here. Let's go," Hayden said. "You got a marked car."

He walked away from troopers as one continued to question him.

"How much you had to drink man? You been drinking tonight?" the trooper asked.

"Hell yeah, I had a drink before I went to bed," Hayden answered.

The trooper later asked if Hayden had a gun in the car. He said he had one on his seat. Hayden told the trooper that he was keeping the deputy from his duties.

"You are not even in uniform," the trooper responded.

The video concluded with Sheriff's Maj. Jeff Cline pulling up to the scene in a cruiser. Cline told troopers about the surveillance, and Hayden told Cline troopers had asked if he had been drinking.

Troopers then turned off the cruiser's dashboard camera. Ralston said that they did not ask Hayden to take a breath test, "considering the situation."

"Our troopers made the decision ... to get out of the area," she said.

Patrol Lt. Lance Shearer, the Marion post commander, referred media questions to Ralston. The patrol emailed a copy of Shearer's report, which referred to the video.

Shearer reported he had met with Bailey after viewing the video because of "officer safety and communication concerns." He focused most of the report on the communication concerns, but addressed Hayden in the second paragraph.

"While the chief deputy had consumed alcohol earlier in the evening, the nature of the call, his close proximity to the incident and the threat to public safety all outweighed the fact that he had alcohol in his system," Shearer wrote. "There was no determination made as to the level of impairment."

Communication

Bailey questioned why the patrol had been in the area, saying that they had not been asked to help.

He said that earlier during the search they had asked troopers for help in another area of the county where officers found Osborne's car. He said they were not told about the Green Camp surveillance.

"The patrol just shows up without telling anyone," Bailey said, expressing concerns about a marked police cruiser pulling up during a surveillance.

"I appreciate the patrol's help," the sheriff said. "I appreciate they want to be involved. You can't just go out there."

Shearer, in the report to his commanders, said Bailey claimed he did not tell the patrol about the operation because "he did not know we had anyone in the southern part of the county." He said Bailey told him it would help if troopers wanting to help would inform the sheriff's office of their location to "allow them to ensure the perimeter is adequately secured and who should respond if the location changes in active incident."

Shearer wrote that Bailey has since invited troopers to stop into the sheriff's office and meet Bailey, Hayden and Detective Jason Dutton, the only three officers who likely would be responding "in civilian clothes." He said he suggested Bailey and Hayden wear a necklace with a badge similar to what Dutton wears.

He also wrote that Hayden "had pulled over and stopped on his own accord."

"If he did not want us in the area he could have continued, with us following, and then stopped asking us to stay out of the area," Shearer wrote. He suggested in the report that the sheriff's office should communicate with a post supervisor or dispatcher if they want the patrol to stay out of an area or be aware of plainclothes officers.

Bailey, asked about some of Shearer's comments, said troopers had heard information on the scanner and responded without being asked and without informing the sheriff's office.

"They are jumping calls," he said. "They are listening to radio frequencies. My position is you come when I call you."

The sheriff said the patrols' jurisdiction is highways and state land.

"You stick your nose in where it shouldn't be," he said, referring to the patrol.

Ralston was unavailable when contacted for a response.

Bailey said the sheriff's office had stopped sharing sensitive information a few years ago when the patrol set up a spotlight at an undercover sting operation, foiling the operation. He said he meets with the patrol and Marion police Chief Tom Bell at times, but would not share sensitive information with the patrol unless he seeks their help.

"I have absolutely no reservation to call them if I need them," he said.

No investigation

The patrol did not file any charges against Hayden. Ralston referred to the conversation between Shearer and Bailey, saying that the post commander had informed the sheriff.

Bailey said the conversation focused more on officer safety and communication concerns. He said, though, that when he had arrived at the Aug. 24 stakeout Hayden told him about the officers' questions. He said Hayden told him that he had a drink earlier in the evening.

The sheriff said Hayden was not intoxicated and that he saw no reason to investigate the incident or discipline Hayden.

"Hayden or any of my deputies, they have to police themselves," Bailey said. He said that officers, if called while off duty to respond, "need to report that and not come out" if they had been drinking, are under strong medication or are sick.

"They do that. We call people out all the time," the sheriff said.

He said he remembered once when there was a report of a man standing in the road holding a gun. He called Hayden because it was near his home, but Hayden responded that he had been drinking and didn't think he should respond, so Bailey called someone else.

He said if an officer working a regular shift showed up with an odor of alcohol on his breath he would tell the officer to go home.

"On an emergency you have to weigh the situation," Bailey said. He said he asked Hayden to "drive 30 seconds away and set up until I can get there."

"He was there at my direction," the sheriff said. "He admits he had a drink. It does not rise to intoxication. I was with him 'til about 4 a.m."

Hayden, when asked Friday to comment, referred questions to Bailey.