Committee raises security and capacity concerns over CoreCivic transports; sheriff reports vacancies, bookings and radio coverage issues

A sheriff's office representative reported staffing vacancies, booking volumes and radio coverage problems to the First Response Services Committee and committee members pressed for solutions to security risks posed by off-site prisoner transports.

"In the past 30 days, sheriff's office has responded to 17 motor vehicle accidents, issued 30 citations. The jail has booked in 70 persons, released 53," the sheriff's office representative said, also reporting 52 warrants entered and 59 completed and 1,508 complaint cards entered by dispatch in the same period. The representative told the committee that domestic-violence incidents numbered 13 with six arrests for the month.

The representative said dispatch uses a series of screening questions to decide which units to page for a call (for example, rescue is paged when a person is trapped). The committee was told that the dispatch…