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CORNING — Adams County sheriff and deputies are in search of a new partner.
For about a year, officers have been discussing adding another sheriff’s deputy to the payroll, but that discussion finally culminated in the decision to add. The other choice was to pay deputies overtime and compensation time.
“I think we’ve talked about it here in the last year,” said Adams County Chief Deputy Rich Miller. “The last few months it got brought up to the (Adams County) Board of Supervisors.”
According to Adams County Sheriff Alan Johannes, an audit was done on the time deputies are on call, and it would be beneficial to the county to add another body.
There are currently five sheriff’s deputies, plus the sheriff.
Hours
The deputies work nine-hour shifts minimum, but they are then on call for an additional three hours without pay. With about three deputies on the clock each day, the hours could add up to about 63 hours in a seven-day period.
The decision to add another deputy came after human resources employees decided the deputies should be getting compensated for the on-call time when they’re not actually working. If the deputies do get called out, however, they get compensation time or overtime pay.
“It was cheaper to hire somebody than it was to pay the extra overtime and compensation time the guys were getting,” Johannes said.
According to Johannes, the cost to compensate the deputies would be about $100,000. To add another deputy, the cost including wages and benefits would be about $85,000.
However, the cost of the new deputy could be more that first year. If the deputy is not certified, academy training is about $16,000. Plus, the sheriff’s office will need to purchase a new vehicle and equipment, as it currently only has enough vehicles for the current staff.
Safety
Adams County sheriff’s deputies do more than patrol county and city roads. They go through the entire process themselves: patrol, pull over, investigate, charge, transport and book into the jail. They also work as jailers for the male inmates, while the female dispatchers work as jailers for the female inmates, and then do the paperwork on the entire incident.
If an officer is on a call, he is busy with that call for four or five hours from start to finish.
The addition will allow law enforcement to be more proactive when it comes to patrolling the county. Adams County contains five communities, and including the rural population, there are about 4,000 people living across the county.
“We only have actually five road deputies, so there’s empty slots throughout the day where we just don’t have coverage at some point,” Miller said. “Adding another body, it fills those slots. That way it doesn’t give individuals the advantage to take advantage of us not being out there.”
Also, Johannes said Adams County law enforcement handles more felony cases than surrounding counties, which have stemmed mostly from traffic stops.
Another issue officers currently face is response time. If an officer is on call, he may not be able to reach the site of an incident for 20 or 30 minutes. By having an extra officer, response times are decreased, which allows for safer environments for officers.
“You got to give the deputies credit because they’re the ones generating these cases,” Johannes said. “They’re the ones that are going out actively pursuing things.”
New hire
Testing for the new hire is scheduled Oct. 23, and Johannes is hoping to have that addition to the department in November. If the new deputy is verified, he or she will participate in ride time with the current deputies; if not, he or she will attend the academy to become verified.
Johannes had not budgeted for the addition in the current fiscal year budget, but the supervisors have budgeted since the decision was made.
The new deputy will take on the duties the current deputies have, such as initiating traffic stops and responding to drug incidents, the most common type of call in Adams County.
Another positive Miller and Johannes mentioned was since Corning’s police department was dissolved in 2008, at least one deputy stays in city limits while the others patrol the county. An addition will improve the city coverage as well as county.
“Our biggest thing is we want to be proactive and we want to continue to fight the crime that we are,” Miller said. “Criminals do counter-intelligence on us. With our job, we are always watched. They know when our shifts are. They figured out what time we’re going home. ... Our main goal is to have another officer in there to strengthen the department and make it more of an inconvenience for criminals.”