Fix It!

Fix It!

by

Jeffrey J. Ortiz

Alot of attention has been drawn to the Jefferson County Sheriff Department regarding response time and man power after the triple murder suicide that included a deputy being shot.

Facts:

• There are over 900 square miles in Jefferson County
• deputies are first responders in all areas outside city limits
• a handful of deputies patrol at night
• Jefferson County is divided into three patrol districts. They are: the North District, which includes China, Nome, Bevil Oaks, and Northwest Forest, the West District, which encompasses Hamshire-Fannett and Cheek, and the Mid-South County District, which has the unincorporated areas of Nederland, Labelle, and even includes McFaddin Beach.
• On a typical night, there's only one deputy for each one of those districts, which means only three deputies patrolling all of Jefferson County. It could take a deputy up to 30 minutes to travel from one point in a district to another.
• calls for help from citizens have increased from 7900 in 1998 to almost 12,000 in 2005.

I'm guessing it takes a genius to figure out that the Sheriff Department needs more men and women. The question is this...do you get the upper management within the SO to start patrolling until help arrives or do you just ignore the problem?

In my opinion, you get all the help you can from within the department then cross your fingers and keep them crossed and hope when budget times comes the commissioners don't ignore the the issue. By the way commissioners, if you ignore the issue your ignoring what is best for the citizens.

(facts came from kfdm.com)