Topic: Sneak Peek Sheriff's View (Read 58625 times)

mommyof3 · « **Reply #60 on:** April 08, 2007, 12:52:38 PM »

JB I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this but since it would seem alot of the Sheriff's dept post here I thought I would try.
I would be very interested in finding out about what to do to be able to be a dispatcher, my husband and I were discussing it and we only have a year or right around there left so if this is something I can learn just by doing volunteer work for the dept at nights (so I wouldn't have to pay a sitter) I would be very happy to work something out with your dept so you had some more man power to help with days off and such and so that at our next post it would help with my future employment needs.
Anyways if this can't be done I understand and any info you could give me on where to go for the training would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and stay safe!

Valor7 · « **Reply #61 on:** April 08, 2007, 12:56:13 PM »

Quote from: mommyof3 on April 08, 2007, 12:52:38 PM

JB I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this but since it would seem alot of the Sheriff's dept post here I thought I would try.
I would be very interested in finding out about what to do to be able to be a dispatcher, my husband and I were discussing it and we only have a year or right around there left so if this is something I can learn just by doing volunteer work for the dept at nights (so I wouldn't have to pay a sitter) I would be very happy to work something out with your dept so you had some more man power to help with days off and such and so that at our next post it would help with my future employment needs.
Anyways if this can't be done I understand and any info you could give me on where to go for the training would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and stay safe!

Thank You for the offer. Please send me a PM with your contact info and we shall talk about this.

JB

Yankee Trader · « **Reply #62 on:** April 08, 2007, 02:45:00 PM »

Quote from: Crazy Horse on April 08, 2007, 11:56:29 AM

Bruce, I am working on an article for my column this week honoring telecommunicators, as you know it is National Telecommunicators Week, what I need to ask you, besides 911, I know the sheriff's department and St. Robert has dispatchers. Which other cities do? I think Dixon and Waynesville during day time. Is that correct? I do not want to leave anyone out. Thank you,
Gary

Gary....I sent you a PM

Bruce

watson · « **Reply #63 on:** April 09, 2007, 10:39:18 PM »

Yankee Trader thank you for dropping off that stuff at my house this evening...we really appreciate it.....We got it all taken care of when I got home.....Thanks.....see you later on.....

Lepard LLC · « **Reply #64 on:** April 15, 2007, 04:09:55 PM »

The Sheriff’s View #16, Week of April 16 to 20, 2007

Welcome aboard one more time. I suspect this column will be hard to complete. I find myself in a position where a small family crisis has forced me to take off four days in a row. That included a Friday and a Monday. My time to work was limited this past weekend. I made a quick trip to the office to secure a bond on Saturday and another trip on Sunday to complete the payroll for the department. And I guess I better count this time on Sunday morning as I write this column.

I should also count the time Saturday morning, starting at 7:30 am, when I attended a fundraiser for the Boy Scouts of America that was held on Ft. Wood. The keynote speaker was a former Eagle Scout who has done rather well in his adult life. I refer to the former Prosecuting Attorney for Lexington County Missouri who went on to a career in politics. A very talented and long serving Gentleman that most of you will know and respect as the one and only U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton. Despite the fact many people were vying for his attention Ike came over to me and we talked about the war on drugs for several minutes. As a former PA he is still interested in the problems that law enforcement officers face on a daily basis because of the illegal drug traffic. I think I can safely say that Ike is still profoundly pro law enforcement in his thinking.

I just checked with dispatch and the calls for service/case number count now stands at 2,157 for the year. As I said last week business is booming and frankly we are praying for a recession. But we are not the only busy people in the county. I had a small talk with Michele Graves at the 911 Center last week and their numbers are also kind of high. Michele said they do not count all their calls, just the ones that lead to an entry into their CAD system and for the first three months of this year that number stands at 9,349. So it is safe to say that business is booming all around the County.

A friend of mine who knows of my interest in history showed me a local publication last week that featured a photograph of the “New Pulaski County Jail” built at a cost of $135,000.00 in 1976. Wow! Only $135K for a new jail. If we try to build one now we will be lucky to get it done for $13.5 million. One of the readers of this column asked me a few weeks ago why I no longer pushed for a new jail in this column. The answer is two fold. First I was getting very tired of the impact of my head against the brick wall and the general lack of progress. Two, we have reached a point were any extra money that appears for law enforcement needs to be spent on the survival of this department. Yes, we do need a new jail but we need the department much worse.

Until such time as the citizens of this County rise up and demand adequate law enforcement services the money spent on County law enforcement will be the minimum amount possible. As I said several column’s ago there is something very wrong when sister counties, side by side on I-44, can have such vastly dissimilar budgets. I refer here to the $4.2 million Phelps County budget vs. the $1.2 million Pulaski County budget for the Sheriff’s Departments.

Bluntly stated there are a few areas’ where careful management of money and resources can help us out. I can find the money for a new LED bar or a new prisoner cage. I can squeeze out another car from the Civil Fee fund. Our local citizens groups can do fundraisers and supply us with money for new radio equipment and in general we can make a number of small changes that will affect the department and improve our efficiency. But make no mistake; in the area’s that really count, such as increased numbers of employees, higher salary for all, better employee benefit packages and so forth, these types of advances can only be made by the work of the Pulaski County Commissioners and the will of the people. Until we have that Countywide “will to build”, our department will continue to be in the survival mode that has characterized the operation of the Sheriff’s department for the past fifty years.

I spent a little time this past week looking at the budget numbers and our expense for this year so far. In last week’s column I commented on the lower than expected prisoner medical expense. Well it is balanced by the fact we are already over in prisoner board and meals for the year. The auto expense line is very close right now and the rocket rise of gasoline prices is not doing us any favors in that area. I am going to have to guess that we will be well over budget for 2007 in a number of areas.

In a wrap up of other news one of our jail staff has announced that we will probably lose him shortly to a much higher paying job so it appears that one again I get to say we cannot continue to prosper as a department if we continue to lose our experienced people. Boy, I am getting tired of typing that statement. I sent over a letter to the Clerks office Thursday to set up the yearly payment for one of our car loans but I will give you those details next week. I seem to be over on the word count again. So let me close this week with the drive careful and stay legal statement. We do have room for you and the jail lights are on.

justwannahelp · « **Reply #65 on:** April 15, 2007, 07:23:00 PM »

JB I think you should not have a word count restriction, I might be a little wierd here but I like to here whats going on down there.

Law101 · « **Reply #66 on:** April 15, 2007, 10:34:01 PM »

J.B., I am hoping that all the fund raising will also raise awarness in the county of the need for an LE Tax. Hopefully lots of people will turn out for Frog Fest and listen to what we have to say.

Eeyore · « **Reply #67 on:** April 15, 2007, 10:38:30 PM »

The word restriction is for the paper, not the board right? Or does the board cut you off as well?

Valor7 · « **Reply #68 on:** April 21, 2007, 10:42:33 AM »

Quote from: Eeyore on April 15, 2007, 10:38:30 PM

The word restriction is for the paper, not the board right? Or does the board cut you off as well?

The word count issue came from the papers. They requested a reasonable word limit because they had other news to print. The Daily Guide has extended an invite to print any "special" articles that I might come up with. As an example, the DG grabbed both of my written reports to the Commissioners during this years budget hearings and printed both of them. And each of these reports almost filled an entire page of the paper.

JB

Lepard LLC · « **Reply #69 on:** April 21, 2007, 04:44:43 PM »

The Sheriff’s View #17, Week of April 23 to 27, 2007

Welcome aboard for one more visit with the deputies of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department. Today, Saturday April 21, as I write this column a very important event is in progress. I refer to the yard sale under way in front of Lepards Shoe Store in the lower mini mall on the Ft. Wood spur. And why is a yard sale important? Simple, all of the money earned will be donated the Sheriff’s Department equipment fund. There have been other fund raisers in the past few months to benefit our department but this is the only one going on today, so that makes it important. I believe that I can safely say every extra penny we get can help us acquire some piece of needed equipment. I would like to extend our grateful thanks to the folks who are running the sale and to the folks who donated items for the sale. I also understand that the same nice people will be at Wal-Mart in St. Robert on Sunday for the same purpose.

I just checked with dispatch and the calls for service/case number count for the year stands at 2,302. Since I wrote last weeks column on Sunday and that count was 2,157 it looks like we gained 145 calls in six days, or 24 calls per day. Like I said we have been busy. I was hoping that since the gas prices went down just a hair maybe the calls would also.

In last weeks column I mentioned that we were setting up for a payment to Mid America Bank for our yearly payment on a three patrol car loan. The exact amount was for $13,124,05. I now have that check in my possession and I will deliver it to the bank this week. In order to update the car issue, I paid off a one-car loan in January of this year at Citizens Bank of Newburg and I have another note for $8,360.09 due at Mid America bank in August of this year. That note is for two cars.

We also started taking bids this past week for a bank loan to purchase two more cars. We also advertised for a new jail van and a SUV for our detective. All bids are due back by April 25 so I should have a busy week ahead of me on this issue. I will try to let you all know the results of the bids in the near future. While we are on the subject of cars I guess I should mention that we had our lone pickup lettered this past week with the Sheriff’s Department markings. We hope to put an LED bar on the truck soon. We have a free, but damaged LED bar we got as surplus from Ft. Wood and we are trying to find the needed parts to put it back together. When we are done the objective is to take one older car off line, put that officer in the truck, and then take his old car and pass it down to our reserve detective unit. Then we will take the much older junk detective unit off the road forever. The only bad part here is keeping track of which officer with what car but when the music stops playing there should not be anyone still standing.

The state audit continues to go fairly smoothly. Or at least I think it is going well. So far we have been able to produce every document and record that they have asked for. I thought they had me for a minute when they asked for the records on our $24,000.00 bomb robot. I could not remember where the records were filed. It took some time but I was able to give them a copy of the record where we returned the unit to the Federal Government. The department acquired the unit in 2003 and I sent it back in 2006. I am sure when the smoke clears the audit team will have some recommendations for improvements in our tracking of some accounts or equipment. I have read the past several audits of the Sheriff’s Department done in previous years and I could not help but notice that the audit team always has something to suggest.

In other news this week we will be working on a last second grant proposal that we found. When I first looked at this grant it appeared that it would only cover portable radios and we had already completed that grant. But one of our Reserve Deputies Johnny Burgess noticed a listing for “other communications needs” in the fine print of the grant. He called the grant administrators and it appears this grant might be able to pick up a repeater tower for us. The due date on the grant is April 30 so we will be working like mad on this one. I suspect that as I write this column at home, Johnny is at home working on this grant. I will provide more details in a future column on this grant.

One of my plans for the department since taking office has been to completely redo the department’s general orders or policy memo’s if you prefer that term. With the day-to-day struggle to keep caught up with the daily workflow and breaking news events we are way behind on this issue. Our first new memo is now ready for the final typing and is ready to issue. The plan is for each officer to receive his/her own notebook with a copy of each new order as they are issued. Once issued the officers will be accountable for following the new directives. As a member of the Missouri State Highway Patrol I hated the general order notebook that we had to keep but as the administrative head of this department I know that this is an issue that is long overdue. This will mark one more step on the road to an increased sense of professionalism in the department.

Last year the Missouri Department of Corrections came up with several new requirements for the admission paperwork on each inmate sentenced to DOC. Some of these new requirements fell on the Sheriff’s office to complete, some to the Prosecuting Attorney’s office and some to the Circuit Court. The kicker was that starting June first, 2007 all of these new reports would be required. If you show up with an inmate and do not have the correct paperwork after June first, then DOC will refuse to accept the new prisoner. Speaking for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department we began to generate the new reports for each of our inmates in January of 2007. We figured there would be a few bugs in the system or we might have problems finding all of the new information that DOC was going to require on each inmate. I am happy to be able to announce that we have our system in place and working smoothly well in advance of the June first deadline. Our inmates will not be turned away from DOC because the Sheriff’s Office failed to supply the needed information.

It appears that I have written myself into another completed column that may pass muster with the column readers. I hope you enjoyed this week’s news and I ask that you drive careful and stay legal. We do have room at the Inn for your weary body. The jail lights are ON!

Lepard LLC · « **Reply #70 on:** April 21, 2007, 04:51:14 PM »

Ummm, JB, it's Missouri Avenue in the Clayton Towers Mall, you are showing your age..

WBT · « **Reply #71 on:** April 21, 2007, 05:32:17 PM »

J.B.
your plug for the yard sale was a little late as it is now over.
But they WILL be at Walmart tomorrow will the new bumper stickers.
And Watson said that so many people stopped to day and donated more stuff that she has more now than she started with.
SO LOOK FOR A YARD SALE AT WATSON'S HOUSE THIS UP COMING FRIDAY FOR THE SAME CAUSE!!!
This woman never stops.
( except for coffee and a cigarette and pee)

Valor7 · « **Reply #72 on:** April 21, 2007, 05:53:59 PM »

Quote from: The Bird on April 21, 2007, 04:51:14 PM

Ummm, JB, it's Missouri Avenue in the Clayton Towers Mall, you are showing your age..

Oops! Wrong side of 60 you know.
JB

Law101 · « **Reply #73 on:** April 21, 2007, 06:06:51 PM »

I want to let everyone know that J.B. personally took the time to stop by and thank Watson last night. He let her know that all the LE Departments would be checking on her (and they did) while she spent the night out in front of Lepards.

It means a great deal to all of us that he passed on the information to the local PD and had them help watch over her.

mommyof3 · « **Reply #74 on:** April 21, 2007, 07:00:52 PM »

R u serious or is this a joke, Watson camped out in front of Lepard Shoes with the garage sale stuff??!! why didn't we just do shift watch changes every 3 or 4 hours?? You do that again watson let me know and I will stay with you or soemthing you crazy, Thanks goodness your ok and didn't get sick or something.

Law101 · « **Reply #75 on:** April 21, 2007, 08:01:31 PM »

Yep, she sure did! She truely believes in this efforts and is doing every thing she can to make this a success.

watson · « **Reply #76 on:** April 21, 2007, 08:13:54 PM »

Well I have to tell you Mommyof3...if I could have figured out how to split Watson into two people I would have left all that yard sale stuff out there stayed the night and had another yard sale and the bumper sticker rally both at the same time....but I guess I was just too tired I just could not figure out how to do it.....hehehe

So next Friday if you are not busy anybody I will have this yard sale again at my house this time......you are more than welcome to come out and help if you want to...but it will not be necessary.....I will get it done....

Also JB tell your officers they still owe me for the bumper stickers they promised to get from us.....they can come out to Walmart and see us tomorrow......hehehe....

Eeyore.....by the way....I am going to purchase two white ladies T shirts tomorrow....do you want one too.....? let me know....

watson · « **Reply #77 on:** April 21, 2007, 08:15:14 PM »

Quote from: mommyof3 on April 21, 2007, 07:00:52 PM

R u serious or is this a joke, Watson camped out in front of Lepard Shoes with the garage sale stuff??!! why didn't we just do shift watch changes every 3 or 4 hours?? You do that again watson let me know and I will stay with you or soemthing you crazy, Thanks goodness your ok and didn't get sick or something.

Mommyof3 it is never a joke about Watson....most of the time it is true.....but every now and then.....well rumors can get carried away.....hehehe....this one I did....but it was a blast......and I would do it again too.....hehehe

watson · « **Reply #78 on:** April 21, 2007, 08:16:43 PM »

Also one more thing...JB, I want to thank your wife also for sharing you long enough for you to come out and see me....you tell her I love her very much for that and give her a hug for me o.k.......

watson · « **Reply #79 on:** April 21, 2007, 09:20:53 PM »

I would like the Pulaski County Daily Guide that use to be the Pulaski County Democrat to tell me as a citizen why they can cover murders, drugs, drunks, political fights.....etc....but they cannot cover something that is good that people are doing in this county......I would think you would want to each week to put something in their paper that would encourage people that Pulaski County is not always bad people.....I and plenty of others would like to know the answer to this question.........This is my personal question to the paper that the public asked me today and I would like an answer.......your reporter knows my real name.....

WBT · « **Reply #80 on:** April 21, 2007, 09:24:19 PM »

I can't believe you deleted it Watson.
if you can't speak you mind then what do we have left.
the news can distort the facts.
and then they expect us to sit back and take it ?

Yankee Trader · « **Reply #81 on:** April 22, 2007, 08:31:34 AM »

Folks it was great meeting you all and visiting for a bit. The night was as expected!

Bruce

P.S. The bumper sticker looks good!

phoenix · « **Reply #82 on:** April 22, 2007, 03:16:58 PM »

I got my bumper stickers this morning.

watson · « **Reply #83 on:** April 22, 2007, 08:28:05 PM »

Quote from: phoenix on April 22, 2007, 03:16:58 PM

I got my bumper stickers this morning.

Hi Phoenix.....It was great to meet you sweetie....I was so proud for you to be there with us......Thank you so much.....Keep smiling for us now o.k.

watson · « **Reply #84 on:** April 22, 2007, 08:30:04 PM »

JB...where are you.....you better be very proud of your deputies today and the last few days....they are some very caring and special people....and I am very proud of them and you also..

You better be smiling every single day for me.....I will be watching too you leave that light on at night so I can see that smile.....

Give your wife some special hugs from Watson...she is a very special lady....

phoenix · « **Reply #85 on:** April 22, 2007, 10:16:13 PM »

Watson and Law101,

It was great meeting the two of you today. Sorry I couldn't stay any longer. I really enjoyed visiting with the two of you. Like Smiles said, sometimes Thanks is just not enough, and in this case where a group of people are working together for a cause, we can't say Thank You enough!!!!!!!!! Individuals like yourselves is what keeps us going and keeps us loving what we do. You have no idea what that means. God Bless you.

watson · « **Reply #86 on:** April 23, 2007, 09:41:00 PM »

Hey everyone I posted the totals that we turned in on the Maynard's World thread if you are intersted....We did good but I was sure hoping that we had done better than that....but it is o.k. cause I am having another one Friday April 27, at Watsons house....So I will try as long as I have things to sell to raise you all some more money o.k.......
I will turn in the money to JB....or Yankee Trader and they can take it to the appropraite place.....Hope to see you Friday.....hehehe

watson · « **Reply #87 on:** April 23, 2007, 09:42:37 PM »

Anyway I will post it here for you all also o.k.

Walmart $148.52
Bumper Stickers $140.00
Yard Sale $322.35
Total $610.87

Law101 · « **Reply #88 on:** April 23, 2007, 10:06:52 PM »

I want everyone to know that the yard sale fundraiser was all Watson's idea. She did a really fantastic job getting it all together and getting everyone to help. I am very proud of her.

msinformed · « **Reply #89 on:** April 24, 2007, 05:32:24 AM »

Wow, way to go Watson! >>>><(

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Author Topic: Sneak Peek Sheriff's View (Read 58625 times)

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