| Sheriff’s View #12 for March 16 to 20, 2009 |
By: Sheriff J.B. King
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Posted: Monday, March 16, 2009 10:14 am
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Sheriff J.B. King
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Welcome aboard for another hit in the long parade of column material from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s View. Actually this week seems to be somewhat off kilter just a few inches because for the first time ever I find myself typing a column on Sunday from my office instead of my home. And the reason for this is because we are out of people to work the road. Hopefully I will be able to finish the column before I get sent on the next call.
We found ourselves caught short this weekend with only one day car and one night car to handle the road job. So I “volunteered” to back both shifts up as long as I could stay awake. The only saving grace was that the midnight shift had two cars so I did not have to try that madness at my advanced age. We had the same problem last week so I am starting to get used to the extra hours.
What can I tell you about the department at this time? Most of my news is still grim. We are still short on deputies. I do have one sick leave deputy in the office today for light duty and so far we have kept her busy. We have her doing jobs that have been put off forever but they are filing and sorting case file type jobs and I think she would rather be on the road.
We still have a number of cars being worked on. We seem to have spent more money this year on transmissions so far than we did all last year. That might be incorrect but it sure does seem that way right now. We are still trying to get a new vehicle into our fleet but the same issues still apply from my last report. My ace mechanic is still out sick and if we use our backup mechanic then we lose his service on the road. We shall continue to plug along.
Our dispatch division had one of the hardest weeks ever during this past pay period. The overtime hours required to get us through the past two weeks were horrible. I presented a special report to the Pulaski County commissioners on the dispatch unit at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, March 16. After we get done with that issue, I will present a chance at a new grant application that has emerged from the smoke of the federal stimulus programs. It looks like a real deal to me but the commissioners will have to give a positive blessing on the issue before we even start to apply. It has been a long time since a grant to add manpower has appeared on the horizon.
The jail list for Sunday had 58 inmates listed. This is about what we have been running of late. I still have hopes that we can get through this year with less of an expense for inmate board. All I can say here is that we are chopping and the chips are flying and who knows where we will wind up on the last day of the year.
In other news to report, since I have been working the road again the past few weeks I have become reacquainted with an old problem — the lack of addresses, or rather, the lack of accurate and visible addresses. It does very little good to call us for help if we cannot find your home. I know on one call yesterday I found myself looking at two mailboxes that were side by side. One had a number in the 13000 block and the other had a number in the 22000 block. There were no cross streets in the area so the mailbox numbers should have been close to each other.
So please humor those of us in the police and medical world and place your address in large numbers in a spot that is easy to view and help us find you in an emergency. I did not mention the fire department because they have a slight advantage due to the fact the smoke and fire boiling out of the window usually tell them they have arrived on scene. But I guess every once in a while the firefighters are needed and there is no smoke signal so please put up large address numbers for them also.
I believe that once again I have stumbled through another column. I would like to take a minute and remind everyone that the material in the column represents the world as I see the world. You may not agree or you may not fully understand my view because I did not explain it with sufficient details but it is usually a rare day when you do not know my view on an issue and that is the whole purpose of the column.
In closing once again I will ask that you drive with care and keep your actions legal. We do not want your jail business and we cannot afford your jail business. But the light will be on if you drop in to stay awhile.
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