Video: Calhoun County Is In Need Of More Deputies

CALHOUN COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The Calhoun County Sheriff is in need of more deputies, but he also needs a bigger budget to make that happen. Now, he’s taking his request to the Board of Supervisors.

The department currently has 4 full time deputies, and two part time deputies, but it’s not enough to get the job done.

Protecting almost 15,000 residents, and covering almost 600 square miles, means overworked deputies and extra work.

“All deputies have to be multi-tasked. They have to be able to do it all. Every deputy in the state on Mississippi, and in the country have to be like that, especially in a rural setting. We’re not only patrolmen, we’re investigators, we’re narcotics officers, we’re crime scene technicians, we do transports, and serve papers, so you have to be able to cover the gamut.”

It’s hard enough having multiple roles, and even harder when one of the four deputies has to miss a shift because of sickness or an emergency.

“We had the county fair going on. We had around 5,000 people there with me and 2 other deputies, so you know, it can be overwhelming at times. I hope the population of Calhoun County sees what I’m trying to do.”

It takes almost 40 minutes for a deputy to get to one end of the county to the next.

“Sometimes there will only be one deputy on at you know night, or something like that, so that one deputy will have to cover the whole county, or he’ll have to call in for back up, or call in for someone to assist him, which runs into overtime, comp time, and that kind of stuff.”

Sheriff Greg Pollan says the two deputies will greatly benefit the county, and possibly allow the department to have a full time investigator.

“For me to hire a deputy at about at $34,000 a year, it takes approximately $49,000 dollars to pay that deputy, so for two full time deputies, it’d be right at $100,000 dollars.”

Pollan also says he feels that the department isn’t able to provide all services to citizens like they should.

“I’ll be the first say, being a taxpayer, I don’t want to raise taxes. I’m not for that, but it comes to a point where the need is much greater than what we have, and you know, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to make this county safer.”

Sheriff Pollan is also requesting an additional $5,000 dollars for the jail budget to hire a part time jailer.

Supervisors will make a decision at their next meeting, next Monday, August 1st.

Categories: Local News

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