BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s sheriff insisted Tuesday his automobile paperwork was in order during a Saturday traffic stop in Bentonville, while county and state officials differed on what is required.

Bentonville police Cpl. Joshua Woodhams pulled Sheriff Keith Ferguson over just after 11 a.m. Saturday. Woodhams told Ferguson the reason for the stop was a missing registration sticker on his license plate.

Also, Woodhams said the license plate on the pickup didn’t match any registered vehicle in Arkansas, according to conversations recorded by the camera in Woodhams’ patrol car and microphones on his uniform. Ferguson also didn’t have copies of the insurance or registration for the county-owned 2009 Chevrolet Silverado.

Ferguson insisted Tuesday he had registration stickers for the plates.

“I have got license plates. My plate has a 1 sticker on the left side and a 13 sticker on the right side,” Ferguson said. “I’ve had stickers on that truck for the three years I’ve owned it. (Chief Deputy Don) Townsend got the plates in January, and he’s put the stickers on every year.”

The license plate is one of about a dozen used by undercover officers, Ferguson said.

“I’ve got 12 or 13 vehicle plates just like mine — covert plates. The reason we do that is that if we’re working on a drug deal, it keeps the dealers from being able to recognize what county the officer is from. You don’t have to be an Einstein anymore to track a license plate. You don’t even have to be a police officer. It happens all the time,” he said. “When those covert plates are run, they come back as being registered in Pulaski County.”

Any vehicle tagged with a regular Arkansas plate must have stickers identifying the month and year of registration, said Scott Perkins of the Association of Arkansas Counties. Government-owned vehicles displaying public property tags do not require annual registration stickers, Perkins said.

Ferguson’s pickup had a regular license plate, not a public property plate, according to recorded conversations from Saturday.

Proof of insurance must be carried in all county-owned vehicles, and state law requires registration information, Perkins said. Benton County’s vehicle fleet is self-insured under a policy carried by the association.

County comptroller Richard McComas, however, said each elected official in Benton County sets his own policy regarding carrying insurance and registration in county vehicles.

David Foster, the assistant commissioner of revenue for operations and administration for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, said municipalities are self-insured, and there's no provision in state law requiring proof of insurance in their vehicles. Government vehicles don’t fall under regular motor vehicle law requiring drivers to have proof of insurance in vehicles.

It’s not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to use vehicles with unusual or no registration information, said Ronnie Baldwin, director of the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association and a former sheriff in east Arkansas.

“They’re usually for narcotics work or other undercover operations,” Baldwin said. “How a sheriff decides to use his vehicles and license plates is generally considered within the scope of his powers of office.”

On the audio, Ferguson can be heard challenging Woodhams over the stop. At one point, the sheriff tells the officer he’s going to leave unless Woodhams plans to write him a ticket.

“You knew who in the hell I am and you pull me over for my tags. Is that right?” Ferguson asks.

Woodhams tells the sheriff he didn’t know who he was because the pickup windows are tinted and the license plate is not registered to him.

The pickup is recognizable in Benton County, particularly to law enforcement, Ferguson said Tuesday.

He said the pickup’s picture had been in the paper and on TV before — when he was running against Andy Lee for sheriff and had an ethics complaint lodged against him for driving the pickup to campaign events.

“Any officer that comes to the jail, the first thing they see looking them in the eye when they come out the door of the sally port is that 2009 black, four-door Chevrolet pickup. It’s pretty recognizable,” Ferguson said. “Even with a covert plate, it sticks out like a porcupine with the antennas on it. A lot of the citizens of the county recognize me and honk and wave. You’d think the officer would be more observant.”

Ferguson wasn’t given a citation Saturday and was allowed to leave.

He did have parting words for the two officers who made the stop and a supervisor who came to the scene.

“I’ve been a policeman for 42 years, and if that’s all your deputies, your officers, have to do, they ain’t got nothing to do,” the sheriff says before he leaves.

Ferguson has a history of run-ins with Bentonville police officers. In 2006, he drove away from a late-night traffic stop after an officer handed his license back to him. Ferguson claimed the stop was completed, but the officer said he never told Ferguson he was free to go. Ferguson had been stopped for driving left of center.

“It’s been reported I was stopped before for driving left of center. That was one time. If you stopped everyone in the county every time they drifted across the center line, you’d be stopping 90 percent of the people,” Ferguson said Tuesday.

“We all make mistakes. We all drift across the center line or sometimes the white line. But unless you’re doing it repeatedly, it ain’t going to hold up in court.”