JASPER — The second meeting of the year for the Dubois County Commissioners brought an extra large request from Dubois County Sheriff Tom Kleinhelter on Monday morning.
Kleinhelter opened a presentation by noting from 2009 through 2021, calls for service to the sheriff’s office have increased by 50% and the county has added three road deputies and two school resource officers in that time. He said of the 730 12-hour shifts in 2022, 660 shifts were covered by just two deputies, not including days used for sick and comp time or completing training hours. The remaining shifts had three deputies on the roads, primarily between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
His proposal is four deputies working each shift and a fifth working a 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. split shift, during the department’s highest call volume period. Kleinhelter said he believes the change will help reduce accrued comp time, but comes at the cost of hiring nine new deputies. Of those new officers, Kleinhelter would add six new patrol deputies, an increase from 12 to 18; detectives would increase from three to five, two of which would be dedicated to working narcotics cases in the county and a merit deputy for courthouse security. The courthouse is currently manned by two jail officers. He would also like to utilize the additional manpower to dedicate an officer to civil process service.
“Technology has evolved, making it harder for us to put a solid case together so the prosecutor can prosecute it,” Kleinhelter said.
He cited an analysis by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of a crime statistics report, which proposed 2.4 officers per 1,000 people. With a population of 17,000 outside of the cities of Huntingburg and Jasper, and the Town of Ferdinand , the analysis would call for an increase of 19 patrol officers, from 22 to 41 deputies.
He also said he has an idea for a possible funding source, but declined to discuss funding for the positions until he approaches the Dubois County Council with the proposal at a meeting scheduled for Monday, Jan. 30 at 4:30 p.m.
The consensus of the commissioners was to ponder the decision and revisit the topic at the board’s Feb. 6 meeting after the council has considered the proposal’s funding.
At the conclusion of the meeting, county resident Mark Truelove requested the commissioners provide a public forum to seek comments before considering the sheriff’s proposal and spoke in favor of the additional deputies.
Additional coverage of Monday’s Dubois County Board of Commissioners meeting will be featured in Saturday’s edition of The Herald.
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