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Sheriff says Collin County is 15 deputies short
By Dan Eakin, deakin@starlocalnews.com
Collin County Sheriff Terry Box on Monday told the commissioners court the county really needs 15 more deputies, and asked that they budget for at least two more in the 2013 budget.
Box said that about 61,000 people live in the county's rural areas, and that the norm is to have one police officer for every 1,300 to 1,500 people. He said the sheriff's department now has 36 deputies on patrol.
"I would like to see us add three deputies each year to eventually bring us up to what we need," Box said. At his request, the county added three last year, but he said the county really needs at least 50 patrolling officers.
He said that Denton County has 64 patrolling officers and that many North Texas counties have a larger percentage of deputies on patrol per population than Collin County.
Box said more deputies are needed to provide quicker response to calls and to ensure safety for the deputies.
Commissioner Duncan Webb questioned whether people who live in rural areas should expect the same amount of fire and police protection as people who live in cities.
County Judge Keith Self asked Box how many Collin County deputies have been shot at or had to draw their weapons in recent years. Box said after the meeting he did not feel that was the basis on which the number of deputies in the county should be decided.
He said the sheriff's department responded to 51,674 calls last year.
"Of that total, 29,459 were priority one or priority two calls," Box said. He listed priority-one and priority-two calls as those regarding robbery, aggravated assault, burglary in progress, family violence, shootings, barricaded suspects, suicide or threat of suicide, and others.
"Our officers respond to a lot of calls that are not just minor thefts," he said. "If we are going to always be able to respond to calls in a timely manner, we need more deputies."
The commissioners will vote whether to budget for two more deputies when they pass the budget Sept. 17.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
CRR wrote on Aug 31, 2012 6:29 AM:
" What was the rest of the conversation after Self asked about weapons being drawn or officers shot? What does the question really have to do with officer response time? If you are getting the crap beat out of you by your spouse or another perp, or your house has been broken in to, an officer being shot or having to pull his gun has nothing to do with how fast he needs to get there. Self needs to put himself in the officers shoes for awhile and see what it's really like. "
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