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Sheriff urges five‑year contracting schedule as Swisher growth drives service demands
Summary
The County Sheriff told Swisher council the town should adopt a five‑year contract schedule and consider increasing contracted hours as growth raises demand on services; he explained incident (ICR) counts vs. calls for service, gave cost figures and said towns should plan budgets together.
The county sheriff told the Swisher City Council on Sept. 23 that it is time for the town to adopt a multi‑year contracting schedule with predictable hourly increases to keep pace with rising demands as Swisher grows. “It is contract season… I like to do this earlier in the fall and talk about the contract that way,” he said, arguing that a five‑year plan would help both the county and towns budget reliably.
The sheriff explained the difference between calls for service and incident report (ICR) totals, saying the ICR number — which is created only when deputies file a report or charge — is a better indicator of criminal activity. “The total number of ICRs are down by six… the total number of criminal charges are down by five,” he said, while noting traffic stops had increased (which he attributed in part to extra Wednesday‑night activity in town).
The sheriff pressed for gradual, scheduled increases to the rate towns pay so the county can close the gap between municipal payments and the full cost of providing a deputy. He described the county’s five‑year proposal as a way to move town payments toward covering the true cost of a patrol deputy, saying historical budgeting left towns covering roughly 85% of direct salary and benefits. “The actual salary and benefit per hour cost for a seven‑year deputy sheriff is $61 an hour,” he said, and recent union wage settlements mean towns must budget for slightly larger increases than previously expected.
Council members asked for clarifications about specific categories in the town‑time report, including what counts as a “business check,” and about whether adding hours for Swisher would allow the town to reduce use of reserve officers. The sheriff said assigning dedicated hours can create overtime or availability tradeoffs for patrol coverage across the county and that hourly increases or additional scheduled hours should be structured so they do not limit coverage elsewhere.
The sheriff said he will bring formal contract language and a resolution for tracking on the next council agenda; staff and council will then vote to place the contract on the calendar and towns will send their approvals to the board of supervisors for final scheduling.
What happens next: the sheriff’s planned five‑year schedule and any proposed hourly increases will appear on the council’s next agenda as a resolution for formal approval and for budgeting in the coming fiscal cycle.
