Junction City police chief Tim Brown has indicated that he does not have a problem with a casino venue coming into the city.

State Representative Allan Rothlisberg is working on an effort to have Geary County designated as the site for a future state owned casino. He feels his bill could go to a hearing before a Kansas House committee next February.

Brown confirmed for  JCPost.com that he did some study on the casino topic a few years ago when there was a non-binding advisory election on a casino resolution for Geary County. ( Former ) chief Bob Storey had assigned him to do the research. “Our research on that indicated that in most cases when you have a casino in a town there might be a slight increase in crime after the opening of the casino, but then it usually levels back out to where it was previously.”

Brown added anything that can be done to improve the local economic development is a plus. “And I’m all for it and I don’t really have any concerns about an increase in crime.”

Rothlisberg told a town hall meeting in Grandview Plaza this past Saturday he had talked with police and sheriff  authorities including Brown, and they had responded there would be a slight uptick in crime and it would then settle down after that. They were not concerned about it.