Sheriff's Dispatch, Dec. 18, 2019

It is with a heavy heart that I reach out to you this time. When I was campaigning for the Office of Sheriff, I promised transparency and transparency is what I have provided you. I continue that now with the information, you, as taxpayers deserve to know.

The Office just lost its 5th road deputy to a factory job in Sedalia. We have lost 3 deputies to Warsaw PD and 1 to Lincoln PD. All pay a higher wage than Benton County and the benefits packages are superior. The Office continues to struggle under an insufficient budget. I'm asked to present the minimum amount of funding to the Commissioners to efficiently operate my office, and when I do, the funding is reduced, leaving me to seek other means to help operate my office and try to bring you, the citizens of Benton County, a professional, well-trained group of law enforcement officers.

Anyone who has managed men and women in combat or in business, knows that your most important asset is your people. Without good people you have nothing. We struggle to bring quality weapons and update our gear to meet the needs of the challenges of our day and time and slowly we are getting it done, but without the people to use it, well you get the idea.

I have discussed this with the commission after our second vacancy, the third vacancy and Thursday the 12th of December, I stood facing the commissioners telling them that we lost our 5th deputy and I cannot manage our way out of this crisis. The remaining staff is fantastic people and of the utmost quality, but they are burning out trying to keep up with the call volume of our county. They are overworked and worn out. Frustration is running high and the amount of overtime and lack of rest is creating a dangerous situation.

I am forced to make a hard decision in order to preserve the remaining staff, ensure better response times to emergency/life threating calls and limit the massive amount of stress riding on the shoulders of the remaining deputies.

Until further notice, the Benton County Sheriff's Office will not be responding to low priority calls that are unsolvable. Some examples are reports for lost/missing/stolen license plates, barking dogs, noise complaints, situations where no crime was committed but suspected, like lock tampering with no entry. I will leave it up to the discretion of the on-duty supervisor to make the determination on calls. If time allows, they will still respond. Calls will be taken in order of severity. Not taking the low-end calls will provide more time to work felonies and increase our patrolling of the county as well as relieve some of the burden on the very thin blue line in Benton County.

I pray that the Benton County Commissioners will find a solution to the funding issue we face for our law enforcement, jailers and dispatch. These men and women deserve a living wage and a benefits package that allows them to provide for their families without working a second or third job. It is absolutely imperative that the citizens of Benton County have quality critical services! The men and women of the Benton County Sheriff's office remain here to serve you to the best of our ability. I will continue to keep you updated about this critical situation.