After 51.4% of the County’s budget is spent on education, the second largest expenditure is public safety with 20.4%. The fiscal year budget for 2011 contains sixty-two million dollars for the Sherriff’s Department, Detention Center, red light camera operation, and fingerprinting services.
We are currently experiencing reductions in crime and the perception is that all is well in the county. It is assumed that we don’t need to invest more of our resources into the Sheriff’s Department, but I think if we look a little closer, we will see a department that is straining to cover all of the tasks assigned to them. In the past four years, we have had a net increase of twelve new officers and eight of them were assigned to middle schools. Because of the growth in the county, we expect them to cover more buildings and more area and at the same time, serve warrants, and a growing amount of eviction notices.
We need to find a way to add six to eight more officers and obtain funding for a salary step increase for our existing officers which they have not received in three years.
We are fortunate to have a dedicated and professional Sheriff’s Department. We need to insure that the department is properly staffed, compensated, and equipped. We need to remember that the officers put themselves in harm’s way for us daily. Let’s take care of them, so they can keep us safe and keep our crime rate on the decline.
