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Sheriff's office seeks detective reclassifications and sergeant to restore local narcotics task force
Summary
Under sheriff Justin Ames urged the committee to reclassify deputies and add a sergeant to restore a local task-force model after the state removed NDI personnel; the committee preliminarily included the positions pending a final fund-balance review.
Under sheriff Justin Ames described a staffing gap after the state withdrew NDI task force personnel; he said narcotics investigative capacity declined and detectives carry a large backlog (roughly 165–200 investigative cases in general detectives). He asked the committee to reclassify deputies to detective roles and to add a sergeant to direct a local task force that would work with the police department on proactive drug enforcement.
Ames emphasized the operational and safety rationale: the county previously recovered large quantities of controlled substances when the task force was staffed, and the sheriff's office has open homicide and serious cases that benefited from a task-force model. Committee members expressed support for restoring the capability, and agreed to include the requested reclassifications in the recommended package while staff model fund offsets and impacts for final approval.
