Public safety at a glance

(Publisher's note: The following information was included in a recent talk to the Blakely Rotary Club and in reports presented at a recent Public Safety board meeting.)

"The role of television programs is causing an increase in unrealistic expectations," Sheriff Jimmie Murkerson stated recently before the Blakely Rotary Club.

"Crimes are dramatically investigated and solved in an hour on shows like CSI and Law and Order," he stated. "In reality it takes days and weeks to solve those crimes even using the technology depicted on TV."

Murkerson also noted that much of the high tech technology on TV shows costs millions of dollars in real life.

"And the technology that is available is faced with a tremendous backlog of cases. It often takes weeks and months to get test results back."

He further noted that assumptions of law enforcement functions are often further skewed by TV personalities like Nancy Grace, Greta Van Susteren and Bill O'Reilly.

The cost of law enforcement is going up for several reasons. Among those, Murkerson cited increased training requirements, the public defender office, courthouse security requirements and the sheer increase in numbers.

"A backlog of cases is being caused across the state by the state's new public defender office policies," he stated. "There are cases where clients want to plea bargain, but due to the new policies, those pleas are taking a lot longer and often not happening."

That is leading to more court appearances by officers and additional overtime pay.

Murkerson also noted that the courtroom shootings in Atlanta has created a demand for tighter courtroom security across the nation, "and the sheriff's departments are being mandated to provide that security with additional manpower and additional equipment like metal detectors and security cameras.

In part because of risk management

mandates,

Murkerson stated that

local law enforcement

officers are better

trained and better

equipped than ever

before.

During the fiveyear

period of 1996-

2000, training averaged 160 hours annually. During the past five years training has averaged 487 hours per year.

And while mandated, that training is not being wasted. Law enforcement officers, faced with stiffer challenges, are doing a better job.

"Law enforcement is a little different from your normal business, Murkerson stated. "The better job we do, the more it costs."

Compared to the five-year period of 1996-2000 there has been a significant increase in numbers during the past five years: 17,931 incidents reports compared to 13,676; 411 DUI cases up from 220; 7,933 warrants served compared to 5,278; 8,986 civil papers served compared to 7,933; and traffic citations incresed to 17,575 from 11,858.

And with the increased workload comes increased overtime demands. In addition to training, court and intense investigations, overtime is also impacted by sick and annual leave and special events like ballgames and parades.

In addition to the above numbers, there are currently 50 sex offenders being monitored and tracked in Early County in accordance with the state's sex offender registry. "That's taking the equivalent of one full time staff member."

Operation of the jail represents a large portion of the cost of law enforcement. And along with a steady growth of jail population there has been a steady increase in mandates requiring increased training and jail procedures.

Fifteen years ago the average daily jail population was 27. Ten years ago that average grew to 49. Today the average daily jail population is 60.

"We have to have better jailers than we were required to have in the past," Murkerson stated. "They now have to be properly trained to handle all the issues involved in handling inmates."

Jailers have to protect inmates from other inmates, be prepared to handle medical issues including preventing suicide attempts, proper distribution of medicines and proper medical record keeping, and recognizing when medical or mental officials need to be contacted.

In addition, they must be aware of inmates' religious rights, dietary needs and be able to communicate with all types of inmates - irate, emotional, depressed, etc.

The Public Safety budget for the current fiscal year is $2.96 million. The E911 budget is another $457,000.

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