Funding deputies on agenda

Garland County JPs to consider $119,317 for 2 new positions

HOT SPRINGS — The Garland County Quorum Court will consider a proposed ordinance Monday night that would appropriate $119,317 from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation to fund two new deputy positions at the sheriff’s office.

The county will receive the balance of its $19 million relief allocation later this year. In November, the Quorum Court appropriated $598,120 of the federal money to fund $1,200 premium payments for the county’s fulltime workers.

The county wasn’t awarded the Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services grant it applied for in July, according to a list of grant recipients the Department of Justice announced in a November media release. The county applied for partial federal funding for six new deputy positions.

The grant would have paid 70% of the new hires’ salaries for three years, requiring the county to fully fund the positions for at least one year after the grant funding ends. The Department of Justice said the Hot Springs and West Helena police departments were the only law enforcement agencies in Arkansas that were awarded grants to hire more officers. The Hot Springs Police Department received a $625,000 grant.

The $5.8 million budget the Quorum Court approved for the sheriff’s office’s enforcement operations in 2022 funded more than 30 patrol deputy positions. The sheriff’s office said the two new deputy positions are needed to address higher call volumes, rising crime rates, staffing issues caused by covid-19 and community policing.

“Unfortunately, the current staffing levels do not allow for deputies to spend time building relationships in the communities through Garland County as deputies are often going from call to call with little to no time in between,” Sheriff Mike McCormick said in a letter to County Judge Darryl Mahoney. “The GCSO Community Policing Project seeks to increase visibility in communities, decrease response times to calls for service and implement community oriented policing principles to gain the trust of the community.”

Seven deputies are assigned to each 12-hour patrol shift, but staffing limitations occasionally require five deputies to patrol the sheriff’s office’s more than 700-square-mile jurisdiction. McCormick said the pandemic has added to the office’s department’s staffing issues.