“Accepting those funds, from whatever source and for whatever purpose, may now subject local agencies to Federal “standards” that will severely restrict local autonomy in policy development and implementation.”
Not really. Accepting juice from the federal teat doesn’t necessarily mean you gotta do what the federal fascists say. Plenty of sheriffs are telling the fedzilla to stick a bone up their nose while refusing to obey federal diktats or cut the federal goons slack when they break state laws.
Sheriffs are sovereigns and can tell the federal goons to take a flying leap when they request assistance in some federal operation. And fatty federal fascists best obey state and county laws or face local SWAT teams.
I lived in NM for many years. Part of that time was during the Sagebrush Rebellion. Ranchers won commissioner seats and enacted local laws that the BLM and Forest Service had to abide by. That went a long way to bridling the Fed Gov Rogue “rules & regulations”. They squealed when they had to take orders from a legal authority other than themselves. hee hee