County Commissioners approve hiring of additional Sheriff Deputies

By Editor | May 29, 2024 |

By Steven Spencer

The Calhoun County Commissioners agreed to hire an additional deputy for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office at their Tuesday, May 21, meeting.
Commissioner Patrick Simon said he and Chief Deputy Zach Hardin had been discussing the need for additional deputies and wanted to bring the issue to the board.
Chief Deputy Hardin said at one time the department had five full-time deputies, but over the years the number has decreased to three full-time deputies and two part-time. Due to the nature of the calls the department receives and the number of deputies on staff, the Sheriff’s office is paying a lot of overtime for deputies who are in need of time off.
“We’re responsible for court security, jail, and prisoner transport as well as our day-to-day duties of answering calls and conducting traffic stops and things like that,” Hardin said. “We’re essentially running to the point now where it’s difficult to succeed in any one of these let alone all of them with the amount of people that we have.”
With the training and certifications currently obtained by the deputies such as homicide investigation, crisis intervention, and more, Hardin said the department has come a long way.
All the training, certifications, and experience has resulted in the department routinely solving more cases that require a large amount of investigations, search warrants and interviews, Hardin said.
“We’ve been really successful in this, but it’s limited the amount of time that our deputies have to be on patrol actively,” he said.
While the department has been successful, Hardin said the amount of overtime is not only becoming a financial issue for the county but he’s also concerned about losing their most valuable asset, people
“When we’re working that much overtime it’s kind of putting a financial burden on the county in my opinion. We’re essentially paying time and half for forty hours of a full-time deputy,” Hardin said. “Our most valuable asset is our people. As the Chief, I would do anything possible to retain the current staff and add additional staff to help relieve the stress on those that put our office into a new caliber of agency.”
With the need for more deputies, Commissioners Phil Robeen and Terry Woelfel joined Chief Deputy Hardin at the Village of Hardin’s May board meeting to request their assistance in funding an officer.
The county is hoping that the villages might be able to cover the cost of an additional deputy and vehicle as well.
With three full-time deputies, a part-time deputy, and all of the dispatching needs, Robeen told the Village of Hardin that the county generally spends around $596,975 a year. The cost will go up with the need for a new vehicle and new equipment. Robeen said they expect the cost to increase to $693,602.
Chief Deputy Hardin said ultimately the department would like to see two additional deputies and bring the number of full-timers back to what it once was.
Chief Deputy Hardin also provided the commissioners with an update on the COPS grant that the department is waiting to receive funds from.
Hardin said that the grant will be used to purchase body cameras that the department will be required to wear, as well as help with communication tower upgrades.
A finalized quote from Axon for the body cams came in at approximately $54,000.
He said a progress report was submitted but sent back because they had not made any equipment purchases yet. Once the body cams have been purchased the progress report can be updated and they’ll start to receive the grant money.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good idea of when we’ll get the money back after the stuff is purchased,” Hardin said. “We’re essentially locked until we purchase something.”