Calling for backup

Two sheriffs make case for adding deputies

Imagine having 955 square miles within which you need to be prepared to respond at a moment’s notice to a crisis, never knowing where and when that might be required. And let’s not be sadistic about this: You don’t have to cover all that territory by yourself.

You can pick three other people to help.

Are you thinking “Where do I sign up?”

You might be a candidate to work for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Most folks, however, would hardly recognize that as an opportunity, but a challenge that, while not impossible, certainly doesn’t sound inviting.

Sheriff Tim Helder says that’s too often the circumstances his agency faces, and while that, once upon a time, might have been sufficient, population growth and an intensifying volume and nature of calls for help worry him. His agency has more than 300 employees, but a big portion is consumed by the demands of operating a jail — home to more than 600 prisoners — 24 hours a day.

The last time he added deputies to work on patrol, he said, was about a decade ago. He’s covered needs with part-timers, but those resources are beginning to dry up. Washington County, according to the sheriff, needs a larger contingent of full-time deputies to meet the workload involved with serving and protecting.

But it’s not just about population growth. It’s about attitudes. While many people support law enforcement officers, recent years have also seen a diminished respect for the job they’re asked by their communities to do. Whether it’s ambush attacks officers in Dallas or protests that paint all officers as abusive, people seem more willing to challenge an officer, to react in ways in which tense situations can spiral out of control. When that happens to one of Helder’s deputies, he wants to make sure there’s a reasonable chance for backup.

Helder has asked the Washington County Quorum Court for help. His budget request includes money for eight additional deputies for patrol, two to service the courts system, a civilian animal control officer, 11 vehicles and other equipment. The cost would be more than $1 million for 2018.

To the north, Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway is feeling some of the same pressures. He said his agency needs eight additional deputies for patrol along with eight new officers for the jail, which he said is chronically understaffed. Two transport deputies are also requested.

Holloway recently told justices of the peace calls for service have grown from about 27,000 in 2014 to more than 52,000 for 2016. It only makes sense that more people in Benton County will result in more calls. Don’t expect that to diminish anytime soon.

The Quorum Court members in both counties are in the middle of budget discussions for 2018 and, as usual, there’s never enough money to cover all the requests for funding. We don’t envy their task, but meeting the needs of county residents, it can safely be reckoned, was a promise they each made when they asked county residents to elect them.

Helder, who has been sheriff since January 2005, has been judicious in his requests to the Quorum Court. No extravagances. When the sheriff says he needs more people to keep Washington County safe, we tend to believe him.

Sheriff Holloway just took office at the start of this year, so he doesn’t have as long an administrative track record as Helder, but the agency has settled down from the prior sheriff’s tenure. It needed to.

It’s hard to blame other county department heads if they feel a little jealous of sheriffs, who always get to back up their requests for funding with recognition of the life-threatening, day-to-day risks their deputies face. Yes, perhaps that seems unfair when another official needs new personnel. But there’s the added aspect of truth. Assessors, county clerks, road department personnel and other county employees don’t usually have to worry daily about whether they’ll go home to their families.

There’s also another factor: Few services are so directly vital to the day-to-day experience of county residents as law enforcement. Whether connected to a call for service or more generally benefiting from the presence of deputies assigned to protect and serve, county residents rely on the sheriff to be ready when needed.

It’s up to the Quorum Court members to determine the dollars and cents, to challenge county officials to demonstrate why their requests make sense, and to match the demands to the available financial resources. But when we hear our sheriffs solemnly reporting a building crisis of manpower, only one thought resonates: It’s time to listen to them.