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Does the sheriff always need more?

Published 12:03am Friday, January 27, 2012

When was the last time a sheriff said he needs less money?

That’s the question that came to mind when Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield explained why he needs new deputies, new cars and new equipment.

In recent days, Mayfield has begun what seems to be his annual push for more.

Rarely one to second-guess crime fighters, I have always been open to arguments made by Mayfield and his deputies. After all, they are the ones who work to keep the criminals off the streets and our neighborhoods safe.

When people complain about the cowboy hats, the glossy photos of Mayfield and his team of deputies riding horseback down Main Street or a web site welcoming users with images of the sheriff’s department standing in front of a fleet of cars and emergency vehicles, I shrug it off. When Mayfield ran for office, he promised there would be changes — the uniform and the attitude would be part of that change, he said.

What hasn’t changed however, is the annual plea for money. Just as much as his predecessors did, Mayfield makes his plea in the name of crime fighting.

“We are really pushing our deputies,” Mayfield said. “They are running from one call after another after another.”

“If we don’t have enough people to back us up, somebody is going to get hurt,” Mayfield warned.

To demonstrate his need, the sheriff said that one only has to look at the number of calls to which deputies respond. The number of calls has increased to the point that Mayfield said he needs four new deputies — one for each shift,

According to the sheriff’s numbers, the department responded to 6,573 calls in 2011. In 2010, deputies responded to 6,154 calls.

In all the ACSO responded to 419 more calls in 2011 than they did in 2010. Spread out over 365 days, deputies responded to approximately 1.19 more calls on average each day. Divided equally over four shifts that equals to a .28 increase per day per shift — that’s an increase of about two calls per week, per shift.

This does not reflect the 911 calls the dispatcher received, Mayfield points.

Even still, does this constitute a need for four new deputies?

Maybe it does, but what is the sheriff doing to save money?

The ACSO recently invested $45,000 of taxpayer money into a new computer system in order to streamline work.

The system has the potential to make the sheriff’s office paperless — a centralized hub for reports. Instead of spending time filing and retrieving digital reports, deputies can now access them with the click of a button.

Booking inmates with a new fingerprinting system and software makes the process simpler and more efficient, automatically pulling up inmate history with the scan of a fingertip.

Such technology is saving time and money for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office — possibly enough time to take into account two extra calls per week, per shift.

The sheriff points out that this is 2012 and not 1972. The work of the sheriff’s office is different, he says. So too is technology.

Surely there are many other technologies that can save the taxpayers money and give deputies the extra time they need out in the field rather than in the office.

With the help of such technologies we might see the sheriff save more and ask for less.

 

Ben Hillyer is the design editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or by e-mail at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.

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  • Anonymous

    Your accounting skills are showing, Chuck’s are a little shy.  Good article.

    P.S., you mentioned the new $45K software, but neglected to mention the original $109K software failure and getting that money back for the county.

  • Anonymous

    Yes the one where the sheriff bought the system for the department from herself.  Should have been a conflict of interest deal but not in Natchez. 

  • Anonymous

    Ben, Great article, I am so glad that someone looks at the facts. Just one more thing I would like to see come out so the people of Natchez will  see reality. Natchez Police responded to approx. 29,000 calls for service from violent crimes to yes evan live stock calls with the avg. number on shift 4 to 5. I aggree Chuck needs to reorganize not want want want. No more Bull. Thanks again for standing up and being heard

  • Anonymous

    I think this is a clear symptom of lack of supervision by the BOS in the past, approving a summary budget with starting point of last year’s spending level, and allowing the department heads to spend everything within that limit and no ongoing reviews of spending on individual items, specifically those that were not envisioned when the original budget was prepared and not enforcing standard purchasing and contracting practices.  A line item, zero based budget would bring lots of this junk to light and prevent it BEFORE the money is spent.

  • http://www.natchezdemocrat.com khakirat

    If my memory serves me right the Sheriff blew the whistle and informed the BOA that the computor wasn’t right but the BOS said take it and like it. It seems to me the ND is the bad guy here and should get facts of burden of truth straight but the sheriff dept. is doing a great job so give them the tools they need. ND seem like you’ll must be the drug dealers fighting the sheriff that reminds me on the treatment you’ll gave Henry Watts!!! Write the truth Ben!!

  • Anonymous

    “When was the last time a sheriff said he needs less money?”

    When was the last time you heard ANYONE in government say that?  Heck, these days when government entities don’t get big enough budget increases they call it a “cut”, never mind it was still bigger than the previous year.
    Natchez has lost a 20+% of its population since I was in my 20s.  How much less, relatively speaking, are departmental budgets?  I suspect they do not reflect a population loss at all.  The population gets smaller but the budgets tend to still get bigger.  That doesn’t even cover things not in the budget that depend on grant money.

    Government grows.  That is the nature of the beast.  It grows until it consumes all the local resources.  It then begins to look to other government entities for resources to devour.  First the state, then the feds.  That’s where Natchez is now.

  • Anonymous

    Time for the consolidation game to begin.  I would like to see a zero based, line item budget published to the public prior to passage every year. Here we are barely 3 months into the budget cycle and ACSO now decides it is a good idea to buy Tahoes instead of cars which I assume was the original budget input. During these economic times, If it wasn’t approved at the outset, and within budgeted amounts, it should not be considered – which appears to be the outcome of the change proposal this time – is this a symptom of the new board members being more conservative?.

  • Anonymous

    Chuck’s office is probably the ONLY one doing what they are supposed to do and doing it very well. If he needs more deputies, let’s get them. He has already busted a lot of thugs, let him get more. I see 5 or 6 county and city workers at one location. Maybe 2 are doing something while the rest just stand around checking their text messages… you don’t see that with Sheriff’s deputies!!! So, cut somewhere else to give him what he needs and deserves.

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