SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENTS SPREAD THIN

Daviess, McCracken, Warren see increasing demands

Sheriff's departments throughout western Kentucky say they juggle the
demands of urban sprawl, methamphetamine and homeland security concerns with
patrol staffs that have remained largely unchanged during the past 10 years.

Daviess, McCracken and Warren county sheriff's departments could double the
size of their road patrols and still fall below the recommended national
averages of two officers per 1,000 residents.

At full strength, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department will have a patrol
force of 21 officers who respond to crashes and calls for help. Currently,
the department has 19 officers and is awaiting two new recruits who will
graduate from the police academy this month.

If the department was staffed with two officers for every 1,000 people it
serves, it would have more than 70 officers patrolling roads instead of 21.
On a typical Saturday evening, about four or five officers will patrol the
446 square miles of Daviess County outside Owensboro with a population of
about 37,545 residents.

The department does a good job with the size of the patrol, but it could be
much more effective, said Capt. David Osborne. The sheriff's department
requested an additional six officers last year, and a compromise was reached
to add three officers. Daviess Fiscal Court gave the department an
additional $1.3 million.

"We get calls from people saying, 'We don't ever see a sheriff's cruiser,' "
Osborne said. "It's pretty easily explained why they don't see them. Because
of the numbers."

The size of the Daviess County sheriff's patrol is nearly the same as
McCracken County's, which at full force would have 18 officers patrolling
the roads.

The McCracken County department is short six officers, all of whom left in
the past three months to work security at an atomic energy plant near
Paducah. But even with 18 deputies, the demands are overwhelming, said Chief
Deputy Terry Long.

"That's really not enough," Long said. "It's unreal."

The size of the patrol has not increased in 11 years despite requests each
year for additional manpower, Long said. Since then a meth epidemic arrived,
and police increased efforts to patrol sensitive sites for homeland
security, Long said.

The McCracken deputies patrol 252 square miles with a population of 37,514.
The department could use 10 more deputies, he said. If the patrol staff was
expanded to 50 officers, it would be even with volume of business, he said.

Until two years ago, the Warren County Sheriff's Department relied on
Kentucky State Police to respond to calls for service during the night, said
sheriff's bookkeeper Carol Hurd.

Now the department has 20 patrol officers who respond to calls 24 hours a
day. The officers serve a county population of about 42,000 residents. A
domestic violence call may tie up a deputy for two or three hours, Hurd
said.

The department is growing more diversified with a police K9 unit, school
resource officers and criminal investigations, she said. The department has
requested additional patrol for the growing county, she said.

"We have really expressed concerns of wanting more patrol," Hurd said. "It
seems like it keeps getting put on the back burner."

Population alone is not a foolproof measure for the need of more officers,
said Gary Cordner, dean of the College of Justice and Safety at Eastern
Kentucky University. When experts are requested to perform a survey about
the need for additional officers, they examine calls for service and crime
rates.

Plus, the size of the police agency is largely what taxpayers want it to be,
Cordner said. Some communities may be willing to pay for a school resource
officer at each school, while others don't care.

The Kentucky State Police pull more weight in some communities than in
others, he said. The two officers for every 1,000 people is a general rule
for municipal police agencies but may fluctuate in sheriff's departments,
Cordner said.

The complaints about sizes of departments is not unique to western Kentucky,
he said.

"I've never met a police department (that) didn't (express the need for more
officers)," Cordner said. "And police departments are not alone in that.
Every school you talk with would say they need more teachers."

The most important concern is safety for the community, said Daviess County
Judge-Executive Reid Haire. The safety must be weighed against a realistic
financial situation for the county, Haire said.

The sheriff's department receives a smaller percentage of the administrative
fees on taxes it collects when compared with other departments, Haire said.
In other communities, fiscal court likely provides less additional money for
the agency.

Haire said he does not receive calls from residents concerned about the
level of policing in the county.

"With the meth labs, I think an increase would likely be justified, but
whether the community is willing to pay for it is unlikely," Haire said. "If
you don't (hear from concerned residents) you have to assume there's a
sufficient number out there. You're always faced with the dilemma, 'Do we
ever have enough?' "

This Thursday, residents involved in Citizens and Law Enforcement:
Partnering for a Stronger Community will present their recommendations to
the city and county about the size of the police agencies. Haire and
Owensboro City Manager Ron Payne previously made presentations to them.

The problem is more complex than just putting additional officers on the
street, Haire said. With added officers there will be more arrests and more
inmates in the county jail, which is paid for at the county's expense. More
juveniles arrested will mean more round trips to Bowling Green.

With more patrol officers, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department could be
more effective, Osborne said. Three detectives handle all criminal
investigations from burglaries and missing child reports to rapes and
robberies. One detective is assigned full-time to drug investigations.

The department has worked well with Fiscal Court to increase funding, but
the county would likely allocate more funds if enough people expressed a
desire for more effective policing, Osborne said.

"It's up to the citizens on what you want," Osborne said. "The people are
going to have to express that."