From the Sheriff’s Desk

            Rumors are a wonderful thing. I was out at the barn shoeing one of the horses Friday evening when my wife came home and asked that all time great question “Guess what I heard?” Well, I gave up guessing long ago so I just asked her to tell me. “I was told that the Sheriff’s Office is buying a helicopter” she replied.

I have to admit that one stunned me. To the best of my knowledge we don’t have any helicopter pilots in the department and the cost of one helicopter is well beyond our annual budget. But as far as rumors go it was definitely a good one! It made me wonder who comes up with this stuff? We do have two Reserve Deputies that have small planes, one of which we have used on a manhunt (the deputy paying for his own gas at no cost to the county).

That led me to thinking about some of the other rumors I’d heard. There have been some interesting ones. There was the one where we were buying motorcycles for the department (In fact, a couple of the reserve officers had offered to buy their own and donate them to the county if we could start a motors unit).

Another rumor was we were going to raise a new jail tax. Something that’s impossible for anyone in county government to do, much less the Sheriff’s Department. The only one that can increase taxes is the taxpayer. But it was interesting.

I almost forgot one of the best. The great swamp boat! I guess if somebody wanted to donate one we’d take it, but why would anyone even come up with the statement we were going to buy a swamp boat?

Another rumor I hear frequently is that Sheriff’s Deputies write “hundreds” of traffic tickets every month. Of course deputies are law enforcement officers charged with protecting the public and that includes traffic enforcement. But in fact the deputies wrote an average of less than one ticket per deputy per month for the last year. We try to concentrate their time on serious crimes. That does not mean people aren’t going to be stopped for traffic violations, they are. Traffic checkpoints are set up monthly in conjunction with municipal police departments and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to conduct driver’s license/insurance checks and remind drivers and passengers to wear their seatbelts.

And speaking of cars, I like the one about all the cars the Sheriff’s Office bought “new”. We haven’t bought a new car since 2001. We buy all our cars used through the standard bidding process. Most of our vehicles have been bought from the Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma Highway Patrols. All have been paid for either with grants or money earned from the sheriff’s service fees.

Last but not least is the one about spending all kinds of the county’s money. This year we have gotten grants to: add a full time domestic abuse/sexual assault officer, put GPS in cars to help locate incidents and provide coordinates to Medevac helicopters, provided laptop computers to some officers to maintain reports and records, get recording equipment and update radio communications. Guns from drug forfeitures were traded to out of county dealers to get the guns off the streets of Grady County and in return the Sheriff’s Office received five new AR-15 rifles to enhance deputy response in critical incidents. And on June 30^th we will be giving money BACK to Grady County that we’ve saved from the general revenue funds.

So next time you hear rumors feel free to share them with us, it’ll be nice to add to the list. In the meantime I’ll try to get the helipad ready.