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Sheriff outlines five-year approach to Swisher policing contracts, warns of staffing costs
Summary
The Johnson County sheriff told Swisher Council the town's incident-report numbers are largely steady but recommended a five-year contract schedule and modest hourly increases to close a funding gap for fully loaded deputy costs; councilors probed overtime and coverage tradeoffs.
The sheriff told the Swisher City Council on Sept. 23 that calls for service and incident-case-report (ICR) counts show little dramatic change year over year but that the town should plan for growth and higher service expectations. The sheriff proposed moving to a five-year contract schedule for rates and hours so both towns and the sheriff's office can budget predictably.
Why it matters: Council members asked how contract design affects coverage and cost; the sheriff said the towns historically cover roughly 85286% of a deputy's salary and benefits and that, when properly accounting for vehicle, training and other costs, the fully loaded hourly rate is higher. He said a phased increase (roughly $4 an hour in the model he described) over several years would move compensation closer to full cost recovery and allow for reasonable planning of hours and staffing.
The sheriff explained the distinction between 'calls for service' (every deputy activity that generates a record) and ICRs, which are incident reports tied to crimes or arrests and provide a tighter measure of actual criminal activity. "Calls are really helpful, but, you know, also, if you wanna know kind of the actual criminal activity you see, we get that from the ICR number," the Sheriff said.
Council members asked whether dedicating additional hours on specific nights (for example, adding steady Wednesday coverage) would reduce the need for reserve officers. The sheriff responded that assigning a deputy for fixed extra hours could create overtime liabilities and remove that deputy from wider-area coverage: "If I'm gonna assign them up here, then they're not available for anything else," he said, noting deputies cover multiple towns and rural areas.
On staffing, the sheriff said the office has added deputies countywide over his tenure and that personnel planning should reflect town growth and construction activity, which can raise demand for police services. He also noted the current union contract (4% for the present year and 5% next year) factors into the town rate calculations and that a contract term allowing schedule adjustments without full renegotiation would help both parties.
Next steps: The sheriff asked that the formal resolution to adopt the proposed contract schedule be placed on a future agenda for tracking; no formal action was taken at the Sept. 23 meeting.
