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    Broke, a sheriff in Appalachian coal country struggles to provide law and order

    by Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times Mar 05, 2019 6 minutes

    INEZ, Ky. - Before making a wave of cutbacks across his department, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk delivered a grim warning to residents of this hardscrabble Appalachian community.

    "Law enforcement as we have known for the last four years will not exist," he posted on Facebook last month. "WE ARE BROKE... LOCK YOUR DOORS, LOAD YOUR GUNS AND GET YOU A BARKING, BITING DOG. If the Sheriff's office can't protect you, WHO WILL?"

    In a sense, it was political bluster. When he can, Kirk still patrols this remote former coal mining region on the eastern edge of Kentucky, responding to traffic accidents and break-ins, knocking on the doors of suspected drug dealers, serving papers and transporting prisoners.

    But with only one other paid law enforcement officer on staff now to help him monitor a 231-square-mile area day and night, his department is stretched to its limit.

    "I have to be straight

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