Sheriff Doing More With Less

WAITSBURG - Sheriff John Turner doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Walla Walla County's new, top law-enforcement offi cial is thrilled he can make adjustments to the patrol schedule that provide 24/7 coverage in his jurisdiction. He's pleased some members of his new team bring many years of law enforcement experience they can use to offer in-house training to his deputies.

He's also happy to see that the new administration, sworn in earlier this year, has created a better work environment and a more inspired team.

But at the same time, Turner is deeply concerned that his budget is being cut, and he doesn't have the tools to do the kind of job he and his staff feel county residents deserve.

"We have an exciting opportunity to make things better, and the future is bright," he told a crowd of about 50 Waitsburg-area residents who gathered at the Elementary School library last Thursday to attend his first Sheriff's Roundtable here.

More roundtables will follow in Prescott on June 23 and Dec. 8. Turner and his team will return to Waitsburg on Sept. 22.

But as Undersheriff Eddie Freyer put it, "our public safety protection for you is paper thin. We are barely able to provide basic call services, and there is a whole list of things we're not getting to."

Freyer said the Sheriff's Office responded to 19,000 service calls last year, while backing up the Walla Walla Police Department on many more with violent crimes on the rise in the county.

Turner said the first day on the job he learned his 2011 budget, about $4.7 million, was slashed by 12 percent, and he hopes to persuade county commissioners to consider providing more funding for his office.

Commissioner Perry Dozier said he and the other commissioners are open to ideas, particularly when it comes to considering investments in such critical equipment as radios and bulletproof vests.

But he said contrary to the notion raised at the Roundtable that the county is stowing away rainy day money at the expense of critical community services like law enforcement, the county faces a significant shortfall of projected revenues this year.

"We don't have the economic strength we had before," said Dozier, who noted the first 2011 quarter of county income from new construction fees is down alarmingly from the same period last year. "Every one of our departments is bare bones. It's not like we're holding John back from expanding. I applaud where he is going, but let's work on a plan to take this in steps."

Turner said his office is committed to doing more with less.

Aside from a better patrol schedule with roll calls and briefings, Turner said he is setting up in-house training with the help of Freyer, an FBI veteran; creating a Sheriff's Foundation to help raise private money for more resources; and looking into the possibility of farming out the service of court papers that chews up hours of patrol shift time.

Getting a canine is one of Turner's top priorities since many suspects who flee the scene of a crime now get away from the deputies. Another way to generate more effective resources for the office is to expand the reserve deputy corps, which now has nine members and could have dozens more if the Sheriff's office had funds to process and train some 40 applicants, plus give them uniforms, guns and patrol cars.

Turner also wants to explore the creation of law-enforcement internships, drawing from the three colleges in Walla Walla.

"We'll try to do everything we can to make things better without spending another penny," he said. "We just need to use what we have better."