When you go to a buffet you
expect that there will always be
enough of each kind of food on
the menu so that your favorite
dish will be there when you go
through the line. But what if
the chef only spends $100 instead
of $200 dollars to make sure that
there is extra food on hand "just
in case". Well, in a way that is
similar to the problem we will be
covering today on The County
Seat. Hi I'm Chad Booth and
hello again. In our scenario,
the buffet is your protection as
a citizen, and the entrees are
the available law enforcement
officers to serve and protect the
community. It seems that we have
not spent enough time and money
in the kitchen, to make sure
there is an adequate force on the
serving line. As a result, law
enforcement agencies have
resorted to stealing from each
other's plate to get the officers
they need. That is the topic of
our discussion today. We will
start today at the supply line,
as there is only one place in
Utah to get certified law
enforcement officers.. The
Academy.. Here is Ria with The
Basics.
hat and join the world of law
enforcement. That is a noble
ambition, in fact, my nephew
followed that path back in
central Illinois. It was very
hard work and required more from
him than his college education
had.
You see, most people think that
to be a deputy all you need to
know is how to shoot a gun, drive
a car fast, tackle the bad guy
and read them their Miranda
Rights. Something that you might
learn in one quarter at a
technical college or by watching
five seasons of Hawaii 50, but in
reality, law enforcement officers
have to wear several hats.
In any given hour of duty they
might have to wear the hat of a
psychologist, a negotiator, a
technical writer, a race car
driver, an expert marksman, a
para-legal, a professional body
guard, and a member of a crack
military patrol squad.
In fact the skills required of a
law enforcement officer are so
specialized that in Utah they are
not offered in any college or
university curriculum, but rather
through only one academy: The
Police Standards Training
Academy.
To get into the main campus of
this specialized school you
actually have to have already
been hired by a law enforcement
agency, and while offering the
course to non-hired students, the
7 satellite academies located at
traditional education
institutions, are still governed
by the academy.
The course is divided into three
certifications. Special function
officer (SFO), Basic Corrections
Officer (BCO) and Law Enforcement
Officer or (LEO). All applicants
have to take and pass the SFO
course to continue. If your goal
is to be a bailiff, reserve
officer, or a constable, this is
all the training you need. From
there, jail officers complete the
BCO and Law Enforcement officers
the LEO.
To pass the LEO course have to be
physically present for at least
588 hours of in class or hands on
instruction. There are topics
you might expect like: Emergency
Vehicle Operations; pedestrian
stop and approach; traffic
accident investigation and report
writing, and topics you might not
think of such as: Crimes against
government; court demeanor and
testifying; natural weapons
defense, or Law enforcement
encounters with citizen dogs!
In addition to all this training,
you will have to be versed on the
entire, Utah Criminal Code,
Homeland security laws, and the
Utah and U.S. constitution. (You
see, it is hard to enforce the
law if you don't know what it is)
To top all of this off you have
to be proficient in first aid and
CPR.
Each student has to sit for and
pass a final exam and meet
additional requirements to earn
the right to wear his or her
badge like: Meet a list of
physical condition requirements
A candidate will have no criminal
record, a valid driver's license
and be a U.S. citizen, and most
important possess a desire to serve
and a passion for justice.
It is not work that will ever
make you money rich, but if you
are the right personality, it can
be oh so ever rewarding. Best of
all, there are no shortages of
jobs for good officers anywhere
you go in the state. In fact
your interest in becoming an
officer will help deal with a
major problem our Sheriff
Departments are having state wide
as we will discuss when we come
back to The County Seat. I'm Ria
Rossi Booth
Welcome back to The County Seat we are
talking today in our discussion part about
Sheriffs as Ria alluded to in her story on POST
there is a shortage, this is not a slight it's a
severe shortage of eligible deputies coming out
of POST and there is not a single county across
the State that isn't looking for extra help in the
Sheriff's Dept. for deputies. Joining us for
discussions about the problems and possibly
the solutions from Sevier County representing
the rural counties Nathan Curtis, the Sheriff of
Sevier County and we have Rosie Rivera the
new Sheriff of Salt Lake County who didn't have
to drive as far but has busy schedule so we will
get our conversation under way so we can get
you guys on your way and on to your day and
thank you for joining us.
So I want to start the conversation by just
asking where do the shortages come from,
spot?
I think a lot of it has to do with that there is a
cultural change where people do not want to be
police officers anymore also the retirement
system changed so there is not a real incentive
when you have to work 25 years and get less
than the person you are working side by side
with that has Tier one state retirement its 20
years and you get 50% but you are working
right next to someone else that has to work 25
years.
So that was a recent change the legislature
went through about 4 years ago did we make
any headway I know it was big topic in the
legislature to try and get that corrected.
We did not get anywhere with that a big part of
it is the public opinion of it. When I was hired
on about 20 years ago that was part of the
enticement to come into law enforcement is
hey in 20 years you can retire and play and that
is why we are going to pay you only 10 bucks an
hour we are going to pay you less now because
you can do that later on. That option was taken
away and so a lot of our officers you are seeing
them not stick around we are losing a lot on the
upper end the bottom end it is hard to get new
people just because of that very reason the
retirement the pay the legislature changing
different things on us.
So are you actually losing officers that have
already gone through POST and been in the
field and thae retirement changed and they go
oh forget this?
They cannot see themselves working 25 years
for a young person 25 years is a long time.
Especially when you hit that 20 years and
partially in this line of work. You have to be
able to run mile and half and got to be able to
scale walls and pull yourself over its not easy
work.
Absolutely, it's just the day to day that is why it
was set originally at 20 years the things you see
and the things you deal with every day tends to
burn out a lot of people and so if they get
beyond that 20 years say 25 to 30 years and you
look at those men and women some of them
are really jaded about how things are done and
they get very burned out we don't become as
effective when we are that way.
So how do we solve the problem I mean we
cannot just go on stealing form each other. I
noticed you guys were like how many deputies
do you have I'm not going to tell you when you
walked in here today.
There are some things we can try and do we can
try to retain the employees that we have which
is still really tough because the job market is
right now anybody can go out and get a job and
make the same as a deputy makes. Right away
so we will have to start raising the pay more
and more and that is what we have been doing
in this crisis is we are all competing and raising
our pay to catch up with the next agency. I am
going to be taking to the Sheriffs a suggestion of
maybe hiring officers at a younger age 18, 19 or
21 but only for jails. Not for the law
enforcement side just to come in the jail there
are some jobs that they can possibly do but that
is a huge change to what we have been doing.
I guess that begs a question why not just wait
until they are 21?
If you wait until they are 21 there is a gap when
they get out of high school they have 3 years
but in those 3 years they either get married
have children find jobs or some of them even
find themselves in trouble and then they cannot
pass a background so if we can get them right
out of high school military does it all the time
and we train them well we should be able to
have them work in a jail. Law enforcement side
is always going to take from the jails. We train
our people very very well and they like that
they like experienced officers to go to the road
if we could even have them for that 3 year
period that still going to help us out. So I guess
the background check is kind of a stunner to me
is that has that significantly changed. Have
other states lowered their standards?
I do not know what other states are doing I
know other states are not quite as intense as
the state of Utah is and what we accept for
offices but I know in the years that I have been
a sheriff it has changed requirements on drug
use, things like that those things have been
loosened little bit so that we can still allow for
that.
Some of the deputies that you have hired today
could not have gotten hired when you got
hired?
Most of the ones I have been lucky enough to
hire I have a couple that were turned down that
were considered but years ago we would not
even accepted their application at all.
Do you think part of this is a problem that the
perception of law enforcement officers people
still think it's like a technical school and training
is that it is like 6 months of training and they
don't realize that you have got to understand
the entire criminal code you have to understand
Homeland Security and all these different areas
of law. Between that and the psychology and
the hostage negotiation it's tougher being a law
enforced officer than it's ever been. Do you
think there is apperception that people do not
understand the skill set is required verses what
they think the job is?
I think people understand what is required but I
think the attitude towards it all across the
board everything from our county
commissioners our state legislatures the
general media and public have perception that
we are not as important or that it's not a good
of career so they are not willing to put the
money or the attitude towards it that this is a
good career and an honorable profession and
we want to have the best people we can.
At some point though it's going to implode isn't
it? At some point if you are losing people to say
oil field security officers because they can make
60 grand a year and there is no way a deputy is
every going to make that and all of the sudden
your shortage will continue to grow until you
are not down 8 but down 25 then people start
getting hurt because there are not enough law
enforcement. Is that what we are going to have
to go to until it changes?
You know I think that law enforcement will
always step up and make sure those
communities are safe but I think he real issues
is going to be in the jails. If you cannot staff a
jail law enforcement side cannot be booking in
then what do you do. We have a situation right
now Salt Lake County jail we are down about 88
deputies right now trying to hire and all the
other agencies around us are taking our people
but they don't realize when you do that it
affects you as well because if we have you put
people in then what happens.
I know you are too gracious to say this but I can
say it so Salt Lake City comes in and they hire
away your jail staff they put them out on the
beat they arrest somebody and send them to
the jail they stole the deputy from and you got
no way to book them. You are having more
problems staffing then the total number of beds
available.
We are having more problems right now with
staffing but we are at full capacity and we have
been for several years.
What is your situation like in Richfield?
I have replaced a fifth of my office in the last
four months. We did a hiring back last October
we had 4 applicants. 4 applicants and only one
of them passed the background and
interviewing process then when we told him
how much his pay check was going to be he
says that's okay I'm going to the prison for $3
more. I wasn't able to hire anybody because of
where we were pay wise. The other thing we
can consider especially when it comes to the
jails when you are that short staffed now you
are going to be paying overtime to cover that
and when you start paying overtime that affects
her budget my budget all of our budgets and
then those guys get burned out as well. Then
when we really need them for other things they
are not willing to come in.
Basically they are done at 15 years instead of 20
or 25.
Right.
How do you fix the problem? I hate to use
magic wand people make fun of me for saying it
too much but if you could write a prescriptions,
that's a new one, if you could write a
prescription to solve the problem hand it to the
Governor and the Legislature and your county
commissioners what would the prescription be?
I would first start with the retirement system.
We have to change something. We cannot
have the same people working in the same
department side by side with 2 different
benefits. We lose people that way we lose our
Tier 2. Also I do believe if we take a look at
changing the age for the jails for corrections
that could help where pay is always an issue we
are always competing with pay and until we
figure it out that is what we are going to have to
do is keep paying and paying more and more
money.
Do we just have to find more money?
Pay is a portion of it. When it comes to a point
where the pay is not the worry then it helps the
work environment so it's a combination of all
the above exactly what we have been talking
about. It's your work environment, it's your pay
its people working on a task force side by side
doing the same job getting completely different
pay those things affect it but also we need to
and I think Sheriff Rivera is exactly right we start
in High Schools a bit and do a law enforcement
class and they also learn that I have to wait 3
years and go do something else in the
meantime and those things happen and we
have to continue that progression all the way
from high school find way to keep them
involved in what they are doing and excited
about it and continued hat process. So pay is a
big part retirement is a big part but work
environment is a big deal and we need to
continue that process.
So there you go the prescription has been
written all you legislatures you need to pick it
up study it and look at thank you so much for
your input today we are going to come back
with the County Seat in just a minute we are
going to go on the ground in one county to find
out how a deputy shortage actually affects their
day to day operation. Stay with us we will be
back on The County Seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat.
So far today we have looked at
how we get a pool of qualified
through the POST Academy which is
required whether you are hired or
elected as a sheriff. It is
important to note that while most
POST certifications are paid for
by the hiring agency, people can
get the certification on their
own. We have also examined the
causes of the shortages and
explored some possible solutions,
but to consider the impact of
what a shortage does to an agency
and the community, we need to go
On The Ground.
Hello I am Sheriff Mark Gower with the Iron
County Sheriff's office in southern Utah My job
is to patrol the unincorporated areas of Iron
County as well as operate the county
correctional facility,
So one of the main issues we have within the
state of Utah is that state wide the officers are
down 600 throughout the state agencies have
that open and void area to try and fill 600 slots.
Where we have lost some deputies both to
corrections and patrol to agencies that are
offering these incentive packages and it's
created a deficit of employees here that has
resulted in lots of overtime for deputies both
corrections and patrol that are working. And
general staffing shortages that put in the long
run public safety as issue because we are not
running at full staff and employees are starting
to get burned out because they are working so
much.
So here is where we control all movement
within the correctional facilities as far as the
inmates and corrections deputies. Staff
shortages over here have resulted in a lot of
overtime costs. And employee's correction
deputies are working more hours then they
really should be because of shortages. Its tough
on them when they are away from their families
that much they get burned out. It just has an
effect on them eventually they want to see a
light at the end of the tunnel where they cannot
put in so many hours but as far as them doing
their job and doing it well that's still in place
they still come to work each day with their
game face on and are ready to go to work.
Some of them are working in a two week period
are putting in upwards of 150 hours in a two
week period to cover the staff shortage over
here
It's a struggle there are a lot of things that
contribute to it, I think on a local level we are
doing everything we can to attract people in to
this profession. But again its going to come
down to our senators and our representatives
in state government listening to law
enforcement leaders.
We have a plan moving forward to keep
recruiting and retain employees because in the
long run we lose employees it an expense to the
tax payer. It costs the tax payer money when
we have to re train. Our incentive is to maintain
and retain our employees so that's not a burden
to the tax payer.
We'll be right back with my final
thoughts on The County Seat.
Welcome back to the County Seat
If you are like me, the
conversation about law
enforcement shortages usually
only comes up on the radar scope
when there are budget fights at
the county and I interpret the
warnings of county leaders saying
that "without increased spending
there will be staff reductions at
the sheriff's office" as a hollow
threat to get support for tax
increases. I interpret it as a
scare tactic.
But as we have seen today, the
impact of not having the right
compensation along with a culture
of support for law enforcement in
a community, will eventually lead
to no one being available when
danger comes to your house. We
spend oodles of money on
education, as well we should, as
Sheriff Curtis pointed out, but
how much less important is our
safety at home and our
responsibility to justly punish
those who are incarcerated?
Maybe the old library is fine for
right now.. maybe the old swing
set at the city park will do.
Those seem like problems of
privilege in comparison to our
safety as citizens in town, on
the street and in our own back
yard. Wherever we live in Utah,
we should all want well trained
people to protect us, we should
want to be picking the cream of
the crop of people with a desire
to serve instead of scraping the
barrel.
After all, we grant them power to
detain us, we grant them power to
restrain us, we even grant them
the right of lethal force to
execute their duties. Don't we
want the people in those
positions who are equipped of the
best temperament and training to
apply those powers judiciously?
I would hope so. To bring this
into focus, this is not a problem
in someone else's county, this is
a problem in yours. It is
currently affecting every county
in the state.
So it is time for us to delve
into this as responsible citizens
and advise our elected
representatives as to how to
proceed. And that is my two
cents worth for today. Thanks
for watching, we will see you
next week on The County Seat.
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