KIMBALL -- The Kimball County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging the community to participate in a survey that will be posted on their Facebook page in the next few days. 

The post will provide a link to a survey where community members can express their opinion about the Sheriff’s Office posting the felony arrests made. 

“I have received many text messages and emails with concerns about [posting] the arrests and what the benefit to the public was,” said Sheriff David Hottell. “So, we stopped posting for a while to take into consideration what everybody said and make sure what we’re doing is a benefit to the public and that it’s what the public wants.” 

Hottell has since been asked by community members why the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t post the arrests anymore, so he has decided to create a survey to hear what the majority of the citizens want to see from the Sheriff’s Office regarding the arrests they make. 

“I just want to make sure the public is on board with [what we post],” Hottell said. “We only post our felony arrests. We don’t post misdemeanor arrests or arrests that we assist other agencies on.” 

The survey will stay open for a few days, then Hottell will post the consensus of the public based on the survey results. Community members can leave their comments anonymously so they can express their opinion without their name being public. 

“We’re just posting what we do for our job, and I think most of the public likes to see what we’re doing and that we’re out there making these arrests,” Hottell said. 

He said he finds it beneficial for the public to see the arrests they make, but some of the comments left on the posts are not beneficial; however, he cannot pick and choose which comments to leave up or delete.  

If the public expresses that they want to see the arrests made, the comment section will likely be turned off.