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Powers mayor asks for brief deputy sheriff patrols to curb petty property crime; sheriff outlines limits
Summary
Powers Mayor Fred Messerli asked the board to request up to 10 hours a week of county deputy patrol to provide a visible law-enforcement presence in Powers; a sheriff's office representative said staffing and budget limits make sustained reassignments difficult.
Fred Messerli, mayor of Powers, asked the board to request county support for a short, visible law-enforcement presence in the town after a string of petty property crimes. Messerli said the city is advertising for a 20-hour-per-week part-time police officer and would be willing to pay for some sheriff coverage if the county could spare officers.
“If we just could get, say, 10 hours a week, from a deputy sheriff…and they saw that, we could put that into our Facebook post… and it would really go a long way toward disrupting their patterns,” Messerli said during his late-agenda presentation.
A representative of the sheriff's office responded that the county typically has two deputies on patrol at a time to cover the entire county and that deputies are not available in quarter increments; reassigning officers would be difficult. The sheriff's office representative also cautioned that for many property crimes the county lacks prosecution and jail capacity to sustain arrests in every case, and that the likely near-term benefit is deterrence rather than mass prosecutions.
The sheriff’s office representative suggested the mayor and county commissioners discuss options with the sheriff to see whether overtime or limited reassignments might be feasible, and commissioners agreed to pursue a conversation. No formal county commitment to provide weekly deputy hours was recorded; the transcript shows staff and the sheriff’s office agreed to discuss the request further.
Messerli also mentioned local volunteer fire-department progress and community initiatives during his report, and he urged collaboration to reinforce public reassurance by ensuring a visible patrol presence rather than immediate high-volume enforcement.
The record shows discussion but no formal action allocating deputy hours; county officials said they would speak with the sheriff to determine feasibility given staffing limitations and budget constraints.
