There’s no denying that being a law enforcement officer is getting harder all the time.
Statistics compiled by the Texas County Sheriff’s Department certainly reflect that, as the agency’s deputies responded to 2,737 calls requiring written reports in 2014, up from 2013’s total of 2,477. Last year’s increased caseload was handled by nine deputies – the same number the department’s roster had the prior year.
“The caseload’s going up and the manpower’s not,” Sheriff James Sigman said.
Leading the way in written reports’ case types are larceny and assault (at 16.5 and 16.28 percent, respectively), with burglary third (13.38 percent) and property damage fourth (12.6 percent).
“The way the economy is, there’s a lot more stealing and a lot more domestic incidents,” Sigman said.
TCSD officers are even busier than the written report statistics portray, and the total number of calls they responded to is substantially higher than those requiring written reports, Sigman said.
“I’d say we could add at least another 500 that we didn’t pull a case card on,” he said.
Other law enforcement agencies are experiencing similar circumstances, Sigman said, with the Cabool, Houston and Licking police departments all handling increased caseloads with the same number of officers. Those conditions cause resources to be spread thin.
“There are a lot of calls we would like to spend more time on, but with the caseload being up, it’s hard to do the follow-up you would like to do on some of the burglaries and so forth,” Sigman said. “You’re just going from one to the other, and you can only go back when you can – which is unfortunate for the public. I was glad we were able to solve as many burglaries and stealing cases as we did, but a couple more deputies would really help.
“Of course, it all comes down to money. But I feel that with what we have to work with, my staff is doing a good job. We could do better if we had more, but that would be true in any situation.”
Sigman said he and his staff know their work is not always appreciated as they cover the 1,179 square miles of Missouri’s largest county.
“There are always going to be some people who disagree with what we do, and I understand that,” he said. “I just want the people to know we’re doing our best to serve them with what we have to work with.”
There are a lot of calls we would like to spend more time on, but with the caseload up, it’s hard to do the follow-up you would like to do on some of the burglaries and so forth.”