Posted on August 6, 2018
Author Anita Goodan, WKVI
Starke County Sheriff Bill Dulin hopes to hire more road officers in order to provide the best public safety.
“If you go by the FBI standards, there’s a percentage they use where there should be 1.5 officers for every 2,000 citizens. We have 25,000 citizens in Starke County. We have 12 officers. Excluding the administration, that leaves us with 10 road officers and that’s including detectives. By the FBI standards we’re supposed to have 24,” explained Dulin.
He hopes to work with the county council to hire at least five new officers in a three-year or five-year plan. Dulin says that will cut down on the overtime pay.
“When we’re working with lower staff it’s cutting into our overtime budget and we do compensation hours. To honor that, we have to pay for part-time employees to cover that shift. Our overtime budget and part-time budget are depleted and it’s the 8th month of the year.”
Dulin commented that he understands that the department needs to work within a budget, but the demand for the officers is there.
“The need is more so now than it’s ever been. The calls have gone up probably 25 to 30 percent in the past two years. We average about 10 to 15 overdoses a month and probably between two and three fatality overdoses a month. We lead the state per capita with heroin overdoses and that’s a badge I’m not willing to wear.”
The sheriff said there is some work that can be done within the budget and he will continue to work with the Starke County Commissioners and Starke County Council members to work on the goal of hiring additional officers.
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