Mohave County sheriff asks board for 35 deputies and $5.75 million to reduce chronic understaffing

Sheriff Doug Shuster told the Mohave County Board of Supervisors on March 17 that the county’s patrol division remains understaffed and that the sheriff’s office needs 35 additional deputy positions and pay-scale adjustments to retain experienced officers.

Shuster said the patrol side currently has 57 deputies assigned to street patrol and that the office must pull staff for mandated duties such as detectives, boating enforcement, search-and-rescue and civil process. "We have 57, gentlemen," Shuster told the board. "We need 35 additional patrol deputy positions today." He said the full package — new positions, vehicles, equipment and employee-related expenses — would cost about $4.5 million and that addressing mid-range and top-out pay compression would add roughly $950,000. Shuster presented a combined total of $5,750,000 as the one-year cost to hire 35 deputies and fix pay ranges.

Shuster tied his request to county growth and visitor volume. He said calls for service rose from about 40,000 in 2017 to about 50,000 in the most recent year while county population grew to roughly 227,000. "At any given time throughout the entire county, you might have 8 deputy sheriffs working the street," he told supervisors, noting long travel distances and an average of 235 square miles per deputy.

Shuster described operational impacts if staffing and pay are not addressed: longer response times, investigative delays, more single-officer patrols and officer safety risks. He described recruitment and retention pressures: starting pay is near local market levels, but mid-range and top-out pay lag competitors, causing deputies to leave after several years. "By the time you have a deputy with 10 years on... he’s looking at the peer that went to the police academy with them, and he says, 'How are you making $6 an hour more than me?'"," Shuster said.

Supervisors asked about cost and logistics. Supervisor Martin asked how much it costs to hire and train a recruit; Shuster estimated about $100,000 for a new, inexperienced deputy (academy, field training, equipment and vehicle). In response to questions about funding, supervisors discussed options including prioritization, reallocations and potential dedicated revenues; Supervisor Gould suggested a dedicated small sales tax for public safety but did not present a formal proposal. Shuster said the sheriff’s budget request as presented was not included in the department’s current budget filing.

Board members thanked Shuster and his staff but expressed caution about the timing and scale of new recurring costs given county budget constraints. Several supervisors said the request must be weighed against other departmental needs and long-term fiscal planning. No formal appropriation or budget amendment was adopted at the March 17 meeting.

Why it matters: Mohave County covers a large geographic area with a substantial volume of visitor-related and rural calls for service. The sheriff framed the request as a public-safety imperative tied to response times, officer safety and investigative capacity.

What’s next: Shuster asked the board to find a "path" to the requested funding for FY2026; supervisors asked staff to include the request in budget deliberations and to examine potential funding options before final budget adoption.