Government : Sheriff's Office provides Law Enforcement to area small Communities

At last week's Benton County Supervisor's Meeting, the discussion of how much coverage the Sherif's Office should be providing for the small communities in the county was discussed.

The board reapproved a contract with Blairstown for law enforcement services.

The contract for the office to provide 20 additional hours of service to the city of Atkins came up for discussion. Currently, the town is paying $25 per hour for 18 hours a week. Sheriff Ron Tippett presented the board with a proposal for Atkins to contract an additional 20 hours of service at a cost of $36.05 per hour, with a 3% increase each year up to 3 years. He explained that this would work within Atkins' budget. He said that by the third year the total would bring the yearly amount to around $80,000 which would cover the cost of an officer. This contract comes with the stipulation that the Sheriff's office would work with them to create their own police department.

Supervisor Rick Primmer clarified that the Sheriff's department would be providing the necessary equipment aka vehicles, maintenance, gas for this service. He asked if the Sheriff's office would be willing to provide the same service to other small towns in the area. Tippett said that he would if they are already in a contract with the Sheriff's Department. Primmer then expressed concern that the department might be providing service to the small towns in the area, at the expense of the rest of the county.

Chief Deputy John Lindeman agreed with that concern. Lindeman explained that there had been a committee set up to study the actual cost of providing the service but he didn't believe that the committee ever met to provide direction. He explained that the department had set itself up years ago, to provide service to these communities on an hourly basis rather than a per capita basis. Lindeman explained that some of the small communities may not be able to pay the hourly rate like a larger community could so the idea of a fee based on a per capita basis might be better.

Tippett explained that the larger towns if they went to a per capita rate would have to find that amount of money in their budgets. Atkins population sits at 1,672 and is roughly 11 miles from Cedar Rapids. (in comparison, Vinton's population as of 2019 is at 5,075) 

Primmer reiterated that while the communities would need to find the money in their budgets, he didn't think that it should be the responsibility of the citizens of Benton County to supplement law enforcement in the communities.

Atkins sits 11 miles from Cedar Rapids, and Tippett said, "Atkins has more than their share of car burglaries, garage burglaries, things like that."

Lindeman explained that in his 20 years with the department, 'The downside of the hourly contract, every year we're giving them (small towns) 600 hours of free law enforcement." He went on to explain, "Say we did 20 hours on Wednesday, we have calls on Thursday and Friday, we still have to go. They (the towns) just don't pay for it." Lindeman believes that bringing Atkins up to 40 hours a week would cover all of the time officers spend there. Right now, he said by the end of the year, the Sheriff's department is giving Atkins an additional 30 hours a week free.

Supervisor Tracy Seeman and Bierschenk believed that this should give them 3 years to get an officer and a car to deal with their own problems. Primmer asked, "Why does it take 3 years?" Lindeman said that even with Urbana's single officer the Sheriff's department still has to respond to Urbana to supplement their officer. Tippett said that even the towns with police departments have trouble keeping people.

Primmer said again, "the people in rural Garrison, rural Newhall are helping to supplement this."

Lindeman feels that the contracts need to be restructured to better reflect the actual cost to the communities.

The Supervisors tabled to contract for Atkins and plan to visit with the Atkins City Council to discuss the matter.