Amite County Sheriff Tim Perkins has a recurring problem: How to beef up his increasingly tight law enforcement staff without raising taxes.
It’s a dilemma he seems to face every year, but it’s becoming more urgent as the duties for his men and women seem to be growing, while the number of employees in his office is not.
In fact, he said current staffing levels haven’t changed since the early 1990s, but crime in the county has increased.
“The sheer number of calls for service is up tremendously,” Perkins said, adding that extra paperwork and other duties have strained an already stretched department.
A recent grand jury report called for strengthening the sheriff’s office by at least three more deputies. Perkins said that although he can make do with fewer, he agreed with the assessment.
“This is the citizens of Amite County who are seeing the need for added law enforcement in today’s time,” Perkins said.
The department employs four full-time deputies, three part-time deputies, three full-time dispatchers and two part-time dispatchers.
Perkins said he would like to add four full-time deputies and three full-time dispatchers, with two dispatchers working at the same time.
But any increase from current levels would be a step forward, he said.
“It’s something that needs to be addressed promptly,” said Shelby Brister Jr., foreman of the grand jury that convened in May.
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Deputies’ shifts are at times short staffed, which leads to the potential for delayed responses when multiple calls come in at once, Perkins said, noting that larger departments also experience call delays.
The department has two deputies per shift, and off-duty deputies fill in for those who are on vacation, sick or transporting prisoners.
“Right now they’re just answering calls. There’s really not a lot of time to do patrolling in the county,” said Perkins, adding that the department relies heavily on watchful citizens who call in complaints or disturbances.
Sometimes shifts are left with only one deputy to cover the entire county or nearly 14,000 people, with Perkins acting as back- up, he said.
The safety of county residents is still assured despite any staffing issues, Perkins said.
“We’re not going to let the county be without law enforcement,” he said. “Right now we’re doing as best we can.”
Things are tight in the jail, too.
Along with handling the department’s incoming and outgoing calls, dispatchers also act as jailers, and generally, there is just one dispatcher handling all of the work per shift.
The department doesn’t have a full-time investigator. That duty is juggled between deputies.
The department also has been without a chief deputy ever since former chief deputy Tim Wroten resigned in March.
Perkins said he is considering not filling the chief deputy position in order to preserve funding to hire another deputy.
It’s a tough choice because Perkins said he needs a second in command as well as more feet on the streets.
Decisions like this seem to be a regular occurrence.
“We have a dilemma weekly about staffing,” Perkins said.
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Perkins said he and supervisors will brainstorm ways to increase the manpower at the sheriff’s department without a tax increase as the county charts out its 2007-08 budget.
Board of Supervisors President Dale Sterling said it is too early to tell if the county could afford more law enforcement personnel, but supervisors will have a better idea as the county budgeting process continues.
“Right now we’ve got to figure out where money is coming from,” said Sterling, who represents District 1.
He said increased property assessments may allow for some extra spending in the county, but there are no plans to raise the tax levy in the upcoming fiscal year to fund the sheriff’s department.
Sterling added that he is confident Perkins could maintain adequate county protection with the current staffing numbers.
Brister said Perkins has done well to keep the county covered with his staff.
Brister, who lives in Gloster, said he’d be in favor of a tax increase to strengthen law enforcement personnel, but he acknowledged the problem would be getting others to agree.
He said residents will be critical of a slow response from sheriff’s deputies as well as a proposal to raise taxes to fund more law enforcement personnel.
Perkins said grants would be the best funding solution, but receiving them is far from automatic.
The sheriff’s department has received several grants for equipment during Perkins’ tenure, but its last grant for staffing came before he took the post eight years ago.
Most grant money goes to departments in larger areas, he said.
Perkins said he has been recording the number of calls his departments responds to, so that he can show in grant applications and to supervisors how strained he is.
Amite County will have the second-lowest tax rate in the state in the upcoming fiscal year.
Perkins said he’s well aware of the county’s minimal tax base, but he’d rather not overburden taxpayers.
“I feel like the board of supervisors are giving me as much as they can,” he said. departments responds to, so that he can show in grant applications as well as to supervisors how strained he is.
Amite County will have the the second-lowest tax rate in the state in the upcoming fiscal year.
While Perkins said he’s well aware of the county’s minimal tax base, he’d rather not overburden tax payers.
“I feel like the board of supervisors are giving me as much as they can,” he said.
