NEWFANE — The Windham County Sheriff's Department is proposing to double its workforce here, adding a full-time deputy who would live as well as work in the community.
“We're trying to modify how we do business. While we feel we've been successful, we want to provide better service,” Sgt. Mark Anderson told the Selectboard at their Nov. 21 meeting.
The need, he said, comes as the Vermont State Police are on the cusp of what he estimated at a 30 percent to 40 percent turnover due to retirements.
He pointed to success at Putney and Westminster, which this spring raised and appropriated money for the equivalent of a full-time sheriff's deputy as part of a shared services contract.
That's an example of what he called “more of a resident deputy: they're having coffee with your residents, they are a resident themselves, they're a person who can start doing what I call real police work. They're going to get to know your community because they're part of your community.”
Currently, he said, the WCSD contracts with Newfane for $10,000 of service per year, which buys roughly 230 total hours of coverage from a part-time deputy, averaged out to 4.4 hours per week.
He said from the beginning of this fiscal year to date, Newfane had generated 228 calls; last calendar year produced 458. On average, he said, “You guys see 500 to 550 calls.”
Despite that need, he said, WCSD “covers about 2 percent of the time in Newfane,” with other law enforcement agencies, from the Vermont State Police to the Vermont Department of Liquor Control to Vermont Fish & Wildlife, handling some 80 percent of the calls.
Anderson said deputies executing a simple search warrant here - “in the case of a burglary, to get back what the bad guys took” - could consume 40 man-hours of the contract, or some eight weeks' worth of the town's budget for sheriff's coverage.
“It's not unreasonable, but with that said, it's unreasonable given the budget,” he explained.
In contrast, a full-time deputy would give Newfane 40 hours of service a week, for 2,080 hours a year.
Anderson is responsible for the department's administrative and support functions, including staff scheduling and grant management. He is the department's field training supervisor, responsible for the development and coordination of training for new deputies.
He explained that WCSD contracts with 14 towns and villages, including Westminster and Putney. Of those, Anderson said, he has to schedule patrols for 12.
“That might come out to 2{1/2} full-time positions. It's kind of hard to schedule the half if I want to have somebody at the same level of the other two. It becomes a balancing process, and we do have ways that we make that work for everyone.”
He said adding consistency to scheduling also would help with forecasting for insurance costs, vehicles, equipment, and other overhead, and would allow for “cost reductions to our contract rate.”
Of the large anticipated turnover at VSP - he allowed that he lacked actual figures - he said it was reasonable for crime to be seen to increase here as new troopers worked to get the lay of the land.
“I think that the town of Newfane is going to start to see an increase in crime just because of the decrease of law enforcement to the region, and the state in general. I think it would be beneficial to start looking at this issue now and try to get ahead of the problem,” he said.
Board Chair Jon Mack stopped Anderson about 20 minutes into his presentation, saying, “We're going to have to talk in terms of our budget conversations about whether this is something we can seriously consider.”
Board member Chris Druke then asked about alternatives to hiring a dedicated, full-time deputy, such as partnering with neighbors in the region.
Anderson said that made sense.
“I do think the town could use it, bit I also understand that's a significant cost there, and that's a significant burden especially at a time when people are looking to cut costs; that's a concern. That said, I wold suggest the town look at an increase in the budget because there is a need. There's a shortage and there's a need.”
“All right. Understood,” Mack said.
State Police turnover a problem?
Asked to confirm trooper attrition and to weigh in on the likely effect on Newfane, Vermont State Police Capt. Ray Keefe, commander of Troop D, which has barracks in Brattleboro, Rockingham, and Royalton, told The Commons, “[Anderson] is correct; a lot of us are gone [retiring] over the next three to five years, including me.”
He said the Brattleboro barracks are fully staffed and would remain so, and there are “tons of new applicants” in the pipeline.
“I don't think there'll be an impact, and the community shouldn't notice any changes and shouldn't be worried. The transition will be fairly seamless,” he said.
Indeed, Keefe said, newer officers “seem to go out and do more,” and that young blood in the department would be reinvigorating.
“Sometimes change is a good thing,” he said.
He also said he backs Anderson's proposal: “I support every agency getting more coverage, absolutely. Especially in rural Vermont.”