The Rio Arriba County Sheriff's plan to overlap two shifts and close earlier to make a more-efficient workday is drawing some criticism from State Police, who say they will be burdened with more calls for service.
Sheriff Tommy Rodella announced to the regional 911 board of directors last week that his office would start closing at 8 p.m. taking late-night deputies off patrol six hours earlier than previously.
Rodella said in an interview that he is making the change by overlapping the morning and afternoon shifts to better take care of his office's statutory responsibilities, including court security, prisoner transports, serving civil papers - court summonses, orders of protection and subpoenas - and keeping up the sex offender registry. He said these duties have been at risk under the old schedule.
"I can't afford to do that," Rodella said.
When asked how these duties were different now than when he started as sheriff, Rodella said he is facing a greater workload with civil processserving and prisoner transports. He said more manpower would help, ideally between 40 to 60 deputies. Currently, Rodella is at his budget capacity with 23 deputies, he said. Two of those deputies are getting certified, two are assigned to court security and two are assigned to prisoner transport on typical days.
"There's no way to run a 24-hour schedule with 17 men," he said.
Rodella said the 8 p.m. closing time wouldn't mean his deputies would leave if they were still on a call. He told the 911 board of directors last week that he, his undersheriff and his civilian executive secretary would be on call at night if they were needed.
Rodella said he hoped that the shift change would allow him to put more deputies - about four - on the road throughout the county during the hours the sheriff's office is open. Office spokesman Jake Arnold said peak call hours for the 911 center occur between 1 and 6 p.m.
Not everyone is happy that deputies won't be on the road for an additional six hours. State Police Lt. Eric Garcia said picking up slack for the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office could delay his officers' response time to calls in the county.
"Well, for State Police, we don't have a choice," Garcia said about covering calls while the sheriff's office is closed. "We have to pick up where RASO is slacking. Period. There is no positive way to look at this. Absolutely not."
Garcia said his office in Española, which has its own dispatch center, took up to 25,000 calls in 2011 and has had about 21,000 calls so far this year.
Call data from the 911 center that dispatches Rodella's deputies indicates there were about 13,200 calls for service in 2011.
Rodella said those State Police figures would suggest that they were getting around 75 calls a day, which he called "totally absurd." Rodella said the figures Garcia quoted do not support "the actions I see on the street" from State Police officers.
Rodella suggested the lieutenant "put on his big boy boots" and respond to calls.
"When I start seeing Eric out in the field handling calls the way I do, then we can have a cup of coffee and talk," Rodella said.
Garcia said his office will have as many as five officers on duty in Española and two near Chama during the hours Rodella's office will be closed. On weekends, Garcia said up to 15 officers will be on duty.
Garcia told 911 director Marti Griego during the recent meeting that State Police can call on additional officers from locations such as Chama or Taos if someone isn't immediately available to respond to a call from the Española dispatch center. He said getting additional people to a call could take from 15 minutes to an hour.
Rodella's office, through Arnold, previously criticized the State Police response to some calls. In August, Arnold said State Police either didn't respond or couldn't find the scene of a shooting death in Chimayó. The shooting was reported after deputies were off for the night.
A State Police investigation last year also blamed the sheriff's office for the scrapping of a truck which was evidence in an ongoing vehicular homicide case. Rodella maintained that State Police did a poor job of investigating the loss of the truck.
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal
