| SHERIFF MAGAZINE March-April 1997 Volume 49, Number 2 Sheriffs Take On Rural Patrol Challenge by Richard B. Weinblatt, M.P.A. Deputy II., Patrol Division, Santa Fe County, NM, Sheriff's Office (Cover Story on pp. 10-11, 13) |
Unlike their city police colleagues, many of our nation's elected sheriffs preside over
far-stretching jurisdictions with limited resources. Crime-free rural patrol is the picture
conjured up by the sheriffs of the media, such as Mayberry's Andy Griffith, but the reality is
far from the folklore.
Sheriffs have learned to contend with limited manpower and a dwindling source of local
government funding. Coupled with vast expanses of territory and increased demands for
police services, sheriffs and their dedicated personnel have had to become creative in
order to meet constituents' mandate for quality law enforcement.
Holding the enviable position of actually having adequate resources is the San Bernardino
County Sheriff's Office. Responsible for a whopping 20,160 square miles, the largest
geographical county in the nation, the California county has 1,093 deputies to provide
services to a 1,757,000 population spread out over the unincorporated areas, 24
incorporated cities, and 13 contract service districts replete with an abundance of
mountains and ranches.
The territory is large and, according to Public Information Officer Jim Bryant, patrol deputies
logged 16,300,584 miles in 1995 covering it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the sheriffs
do not share the coffers of San Bernardino County.
In Wyoming, Park County Sheriff Bill Brewer has seen his 6,400 square mile county's
valuation plummet from $750 million in 1985 to the present $280 million. Such a drop
impacts his budget negatively as his agency has been cut back fiscally each year.
"We have eight people less than we did 10 years ago," lamented Sheriff Brewer, a former
City of Powell, Wyoming, police officer and Wyoming Highway Patrol officer who has worn
the sheriff's star for over 20 years. He has a total of 35 people in his office: 14 in patrol, 10
in the jail, and five in dispatch, as well as two cooks.
In Burke County, North Dakota, the presence of one of three 24-hour border passages to
Canada keeps Sheriff Fred Marquardt and his four-person sheriff's office busy. His office
also provides contract law enforcement services to three small cities located in the 3,000
population, 1,100 square mile county on the Saskatchewan, Canada, border.
"We've learned to prioritize since we can't be everywhere," explained the former university
law enforcer who has served as sheriff since June 1989.
With one of the busiest per deputy call volumes in the southwestern U.S., Sheriff Benjamin
L. Montano has been forced to become an innovator to stretch out his resources. The
two-term sheriff of the 2,500 square mile, 121,000 population County of Santa Fe, New
Mexico, which covers the state capital of Santa Fe, has recognized the hard work done by
the 40 deputies in his patrol division (there are 72 sworn personnel total).
"The guys are tired answering all the 911 calls, but that's police work and we all do the best
we can with what we have. It's not pretty," said Sheriff Montano who served as a City of
Santa Fe police officer prior to his election.
Alabama's Shelby County Sheriff's Office, like the others, faces a large geography which
appears daunting to many officers from more populated areas. Deputies are getting more
calls and have found themselves to be 911 response oriented, as in Santa Fe County. A
thinking appraoch is critical as the manpower is not available to surmount problems when a
multitude of calls are received simultaneously.
"Our deputies have had to learn to use judgement because backup is further away and law
enforcement visibility is lower than in a city," commented Shelby County Captain Chris
Curry from his office in Columbiana, Alabama.
The six-year veteran said his 75 total sworn deputy agency with 38 patrol deputies to cover
an 800 square mile, 130,000 population county immediately adjacent to metropolitan
Birmingham. He added that the time for general patrol is rapidly dwindling in the face of
increased calls for service without a commensurate deputy increase.
Mutual Aid
One common way that sheriffs have met the challenge of problems caused by geograph
gaps is by mutual aid pacts reached with other area law enforcement agencies.
Santa Fe County, a heavily violent, call-laden jurisdiction relies extensively on officers from
the New Mexico State Police, bordering sheriff's offices, and several local tribal police
forces. Cross commissioning has enabled those less busy officers to provide back-up to
the call-driven deputies of Santa Fe County.
Park County uses the deputized officers of the Powell and Cody Police Departments and
also gets backup from the Wyoming Highway Patrol to help their 14 patrol deputies (there
are 35 total people in the agency).
Wisely not becoming complacent with their size, San Bernardino County has also welcomed
assistance from fellow law enforcers. The sheriff's public information officer, Jim Bryant,
indicated that officers with the California Highway Patrol and two large military base police
contingents, such as 29 Palms, lend a hand, as do rangers with the United States Forest
Service. Even Nevada officers are invited to cross the state line and assist.
The four-man Statenville, Gergia-based Echols County Sheriff's Office, 20 miles east of
Valdosta, Georgia, actively participates in a five area county regional drug task force and
relies heavily on the Georgia State Patrol. Echols County Sheriff Barry Sasser encourgaed
fellow strapped sheriffs to explore encouraging their state police/highway patrols to handle
the state roads in their counties.
Resident Deputies
Given the distances, sheriffs find their manpower even more thinly distributed as they have
to use a resident deputy system for quicker response. Even California's San Bernardino
County uses resident deputies in Trona and Barton Flats.
"I have an undersheriff and four deputies who work out of Powell and another deputy in the
Crandall area," explained Sheriff Brewer from his Cody, Wyoming, headquarters of his
allocation of the meager 14 patrol deputy force available to him.
Sheriff Montano has placed two deputies at the north end of Santa Fe County, near
Espanola, New Mexico, as well as a sergeant and two deputies at the Edgwood south end,
to speed up calls response.
Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol and even Canadian officers pitch in to help the Burke
County Sheriff's Office keep the peace in the North Dakota/Canadian border county.
Reserve Deputy Assistance
One route to alleviate the problem is the extensive use of volunteer and part-time reserve
type officers. Reserve deputies are often called at home and are able to respond quicker
to a nearby scene than an on-duty deputy poised more often than not at the other end of
the county.
"We have several reserves in the south county Edgewood area, near Albuquerque, and
can call them out to handle a call quickly instead of sending a busy deputy out of Santa Fe
with an hour's drive," said Sheriff Montano.
Shelby County has 12 reservists to augment the beleaguered patrol force, many of whom
are fully certified as Alabama state law enforcement officers. Using deputies who reside in
different corners of the county enables the sheriff to extend his reach and profile into the
various communities.
San Bernardino has long been a proponent of reserve utilization and has one of the largest
volunteer programs in the U.S. Over 1,000 state-certified reserve officers donate a
minimum of 20 hours per month. The 23 units of the Search and Rescue/Mounted Posses,
serving in such challenging locales as the Colorado River, donated 139,526 hours in 1995.
Take-Home Cars and Improved Equipment
The implementation of take-home car programs has gone a long way towards lowering
costs, increasing law enforcement visibility, and expediting response. From the four-man
Burke County Sheriff's Office to the much larger Santa Fe County, most sheriffs have
moved to the use of individually assigned marked units.
Shelby County made the move in 1991 and Santa Fe has embraced the concept since
1986. In fact, both counties aggresively issue take-home cars to qualified reserve deputies
which enhances the agency's response time capabilities.
"With take-home cars, we get more coverage, a quicker response time, more recovery
value for resale, better maintenance, and less downtime," opined Captain Curry.
While cars are the only source of transportation for most hard pressed sheriffs, San
Bernardino boasts seven operational helicopters staffed by full-time deputies and
augmented by reservists on the weekends. Based out of the Rialto Municipal Airport
heliport, a helicopter from the fleet is also sent to the high desert area of Apple Valley,
Victorville, and Hisparia from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
Captain Curry said that boat house property theft and residential burglary problems
identified at Lay Lake, at the south end of Shelby County, have been alleviated with the
purchase of a $15,000, 19-foot boat used from April through October.
Radio systems were another problem cited by sheriffs who contend with terrain not
encountered in city settings. Communications, vital for officer safety, is being recognized
as just that- vital - and more elected officials are answering the call for a solution than ever
before.
Sheriff Montano said the Santa Fe County Commission has come through with around $1
million for a new 800 mhz trunk radio system which would effectively eliminate the many
dead spots his mostly mountainous jurisdiction creates.
In its aim for officer safety, Shelby County is in the process of updating their computer
aided dispatch to get quicker warrant and records checks and call location history. Such a
system is vital when backup takes so long to arrive. Coupled with the improved setup will
eventually be a global positioning satellite system to locate patrol cars.
Funding
Of course, central to the sheriff's duties are funding the patrol apparatus. Money, as
exemplified by Wyoming's Sheriff Brewer, is tight. He was, however, able to get some
additional monies for federal and city prisoners housed in his jail facility.
Some counties are on an upswing. Sheriff Montano recently garnered $3 million from the
county commission for a new headquarters on Highway 14 south of the City of Santa Fe,
and Shelby County reversed its trend of being seriously underfunded for years. The
county was tagged by The Wall Street Journal as being the fifth fastest growing county in
the United States.
Sheriff Marquardt's location on the border is a two edged sword as demands increase, but
so too does the opportunity for asset sharing forfeiture funds. While not as much as
perhaps sheriffs in the southern border states reap, his share of the Canadian action
makes a difference in the fiscal picture.
The federal COPS FAST grants have made an impact for some sheriff's offices. Sheriff
Sasser reported that his four-man crew responsible for 429 square miles in the 3,000
population Echols County includes one recent addition made possible by the Community
Oriented Policing Services grant program. Needless to say, the sheriff is a big advocate of
his colleagues seeking federal grant money to add personnel.
Sheriff Montano, and the others interviewed for this article, emphasized the need for
sheriffs to trust the people that elected them. The public's involvement in their law
enforcement is utlimately the pivitol point, rather then more equipment or deputies. Such a
mutually embarked on agenda makes all the difference in the challenging mandate to police
rural territory which sheriffs across the U.S. contend with on a daily basis.
About the Author: Richard B. Weinblatt, a deputy II. with the Patrol Division of the Santa
Fe County, New Mexico, Sheriff's Office, writes regularly for national law enforcement
magazines. He holds a Master of Public Administration in Criminal Justice degree.
far-stretching jurisdictions with limited resources. Crime-free rural patrol is the picture
conjured up by the sheriffs of the media, such as Mayberry's Andy Griffith, but the reality is
far from the folklore.
Sheriffs have learned to contend with limited manpower and a dwindling source of local
government funding. Coupled with vast expanses of territory and increased demands for
police services, sheriffs and their dedicated personnel have had to become creative in
order to meet constituents' mandate for quality law enforcement.
Holding the enviable position of actually having adequate resources is the San Bernardino
County Sheriff's Office. Responsible for a whopping 20,160 square miles, the largest
geographical county in the nation, the California county has 1,093 deputies to provide
services to a 1,757,000 population spread out over the unincorporated areas, 24
incorporated cities, and 13 contract service districts replete with an abundance of
mountains and ranches.
The territory is large and, according to Public Information Officer Jim Bryant, patrol deputies
logged 16,300,584 miles in 1995 covering it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the sheriffs
do not share the coffers of San Bernardino County.
In Wyoming, Park County Sheriff Bill Brewer has seen his 6,400 square mile county's
valuation plummet from $750 million in 1985 to the present $280 million. Such a drop
impacts his budget negatively as his agency has been cut back fiscally each year.
"We have eight people less than we did 10 years ago," lamented Sheriff Brewer, a former
City of Powell, Wyoming, police officer and Wyoming Highway Patrol officer who has worn
the sheriff's star for over 20 years. He has a total of 35 people in his office: 14 in patrol, 10
in the jail, and five in dispatch, as well as two cooks.
In Burke County, North Dakota, the presence of one of three 24-hour border passages to
Canada keeps Sheriff Fred Marquardt and his four-person sheriff's office busy. His office
also provides contract law enforcement services to three small cities located in the 3,000
population, 1,100 square mile county on the Saskatchewan, Canada, border.
"We've learned to prioritize since we can't be everywhere," explained the former university
law enforcer who has served as sheriff since June 1989.
With one of the busiest per deputy call volumes in the southwestern U.S., Sheriff Benjamin
L. Montano has been forced to become an innovator to stretch out his resources. The
two-term sheriff of the 2,500 square mile, 121,000 population County of Santa Fe, New
Mexico, which covers the state capital of Santa Fe, has recognized the hard work done by
the 40 deputies in his patrol division (there are 72 sworn personnel total).
"The guys are tired answering all the 911 calls, but that's police work and we all do the best
we can with what we have. It's not pretty," said Sheriff Montano who served as a City of
Santa Fe police officer prior to his election.
Alabama's Shelby County Sheriff's Office, like the others, faces a large geography which
appears daunting to many officers from more populated areas. Deputies are getting more
calls and have found themselves to be 911 response oriented, as in Santa Fe County. A
thinking appraoch is critical as the manpower is not available to surmount problems when a
multitude of calls are received simultaneously.
"Our deputies have had to learn to use judgement because backup is further away and law
enforcement visibility is lower than in a city," commented Shelby County Captain Chris
Curry from his office in Columbiana, Alabama.
The six-year veteran said his 75 total sworn deputy agency with 38 patrol deputies to cover
an 800 square mile, 130,000 population county immediately adjacent to metropolitan
Birmingham. He added that the time for general patrol is rapidly dwindling in the face of
increased calls for service without a commensurate deputy increase.
Mutual Aid
One common way that sheriffs have met the challenge of problems caused by geograph
gaps is by mutual aid pacts reached with other area law enforcement agencies.
Santa Fe County, a heavily violent, call-laden jurisdiction relies extensively on officers from
the New Mexico State Police, bordering sheriff's offices, and several local tribal police
forces. Cross commissioning has enabled those less busy officers to provide back-up to
the call-driven deputies of Santa Fe County.
Park County uses the deputized officers of the Powell and Cody Police Departments and
also gets backup from the Wyoming Highway Patrol to help their 14 patrol deputies (there
are 35 total people in the agency).
Wisely not becoming complacent with their size, San Bernardino County has also welcomed
assistance from fellow law enforcers. The sheriff's public information officer, Jim Bryant,
indicated that officers with the California Highway Patrol and two large military base police
contingents, such as 29 Palms, lend a hand, as do rangers with the United States Forest
Service. Even Nevada officers are invited to cross the state line and assist.
The four-man Statenville, Gergia-based Echols County Sheriff's Office, 20 miles east of
Valdosta, Georgia, actively participates in a five area county regional drug task force and
relies heavily on the Georgia State Patrol. Echols County Sheriff Barry Sasser encourgaed
fellow strapped sheriffs to explore encouraging their state police/highway patrols to handle
the state roads in their counties.
Resident Deputies
Given the distances, sheriffs find their manpower even more thinly distributed as they have
to use a resident deputy system for quicker response. Even California's San Bernardino
County uses resident deputies in Trona and Barton Flats.
"I have an undersheriff and four deputies who work out of Powell and another deputy in the
Crandall area," explained Sheriff Brewer from his Cody, Wyoming, headquarters of his
allocation of the meager 14 patrol deputy force available to him.
Sheriff Montano has placed two deputies at the north end of Santa Fe County, near
Espanola, New Mexico, as well as a sergeant and two deputies at the Edgwood south end,
to speed up calls response.
Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol and even Canadian officers pitch in to help the Burke
County Sheriff's Office keep the peace in the North Dakota/Canadian border county.
Reserve Deputy Assistance
One route to alleviate the problem is the extensive use of volunteer and part-time reserve
type officers. Reserve deputies are often called at home and are able to respond quicker
to a nearby scene than an on-duty deputy poised more often than not at the other end of
the county.
"We have several reserves in the south county Edgewood area, near Albuquerque, and
can call them out to handle a call quickly instead of sending a busy deputy out of Santa Fe
with an hour's drive," said Sheriff Montano.
Shelby County has 12 reservists to augment the beleaguered patrol force, many of whom
are fully certified as Alabama state law enforcement officers. Using deputies who reside in
different corners of the county enables the sheriff to extend his reach and profile into the
various communities.
San Bernardino has long been a proponent of reserve utilization and has one of the largest
volunteer programs in the U.S. Over 1,000 state-certified reserve officers donate a
minimum of 20 hours per month. The 23 units of the Search and Rescue/Mounted Posses,
serving in such challenging locales as the Colorado River, donated 139,526 hours in 1995.
Take-Home Cars and Improved Equipment
The implementation of take-home car programs has gone a long way towards lowering
costs, increasing law enforcement visibility, and expediting response. From the four-man
Burke County Sheriff's Office to the much larger Santa Fe County, most sheriffs have
moved to the use of individually assigned marked units.
Shelby County made the move in 1991 and Santa Fe has embraced the concept since
1986. In fact, both counties aggresively issue take-home cars to qualified reserve deputies
which enhances the agency's response time capabilities.
"With take-home cars, we get more coverage, a quicker response time, more recovery
value for resale, better maintenance, and less downtime," opined Captain Curry.
While cars are the only source of transportation for most hard pressed sheriffs, San
Bernardino boasts seven operational helicopters staffed by full-time deputies and
augmented by reservists on the weekends. Based out of the Rialto Municipal Airport
heliport, a helicopter from the fleet is also sent to the high desert area of Apple Valley,
Victorville, and Hisparia from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
Captain Curry said that boat house property theft and residential burglary problems
identified at Lay Lake, at the south end of Shelby County, have been alleviated with the
purchase of a $15,000, 19-foot boat used from April through October.
Radio systems were another problem cited by sheriffs who contend with terrain not
encountered in city settings. Communications, vital for officer safety, is being recognized
as just that- vital - and more elected officials are answering the call for a solution than ever
before.
Sheriff Montano said the Santa Fe County Commission has come through with around $1
million for a new 800 mhz trunk radio system which would effectively eliminate the many
dead spots his mostly mountainous jurisdiction creates.
In its aim for officer safety, Shelby County is in the process of updating their computer
aided dispatch to get quicker warrant and records checks and call location history. Such a
system is vital when backup takes so long to arrive. Coupled with the improved setup will
eventually be a global positioning satellite system to locate patrol cars.
Funding
Of course, central to the sheriff's duties are funding the patrol apparatus. Money, as
exemplified by Wyoming's Sheriff Brewer, is tight. He was, however, able to get some
additional monies for federal and city prisoners housed in his jail facility.
Some counties are on an upswing. Sheriff Montano recently garnered $3 million from the
county commission for a new headquarters on Highway 14 south of the City of Santa Fe,
and Shelby County reversed its trend of being seriously underfunded for years. The
county was tagged by The Wall Street Journal as being the fifth fastest growing county in
the United States.
Sheriff Marquardt's location on the border is a two edged sword as demands increase, but
so too does the opportunity for asset sharing forfeiture funds. While not as much as
perhaps sheriffs in the southern border states reap, his share of the Canadian action
makes a difference in the fiscal picture.
The federal COPS FAST grants have made an impact for some sheriff's offices. Sheriff
Sasser reported that his four-man crew responsible for 429 square miles in the 3,000
population Echols County includes one recent addition made possible by the Community
Oriented Policing Services grant program. Needless to say, the sheriff is a big advocate of
his colleagues seeking federal grant money to add personnel.
Sheriff Montano, and the others interviewed for this article, emphasized the need for
sheriffs to trust the people that elected them. The public's involvement in their law
enforcement is utlimately the pivitol point, rather then more equipment or deputies. Such a
mutually embarked on agenda makes all the difference in the challenging mandate to police
rural territory which sheriffs across the U.S. contend with on a daily basis.
About the Author: Richard B. Weinblatt, a deputy II. with the Patrol Division of the Santa
Fe County, New Mexico, Sheriff's Office, writes regularly for national law enforcement
magazines. He holds a Master of Public Administration in Criminal Justice degree.
| For contracting of articles, media commentary, or other matters, contact: richard@policearticles.com |
| policearticles.com home of published articles written by Richard B. Weinblatt |
Located just North of Orlando,
Florida, Richard B. Weinblatt
provides professional article
writing services and expert
commentary for the media on a
variety of criminal justice topics
Florida, Richard B. Weinblatt
provides professional article
writing services and expert
commentary for the media on a
variety of criminal justice topics
| FAST FACT "Reserve Reports" by Richard B. Weinblatt, a regular column in LAW AND ORDER: THE MAGAZINE FOR POLICE MANAGEMENT, ran for a decade (1991-2001). |
| FAST FACT Richard Weinblatt's March-April 1997 SHERIFF MAGAZINE article "Sheriffs Take on Rural Patrol Challenge" featured him on the cover. |
| FAST FACT The 250+ page book "Reserve Law Enforcement in the United States" by Richard B. Weinblatt, was published in 1993 |
This website contains criminal justice articles written by former Police Chief and Criminal Justice Professor/Police Academy Manager Richard B. Weinblatt |