Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2014
Source: Payson Roundup, The (AZ)
Copyright: 2014 The Payson Roundup
Contact:  http://www.paysonroundup.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1523
Author: Alexis Bechman

POT BUST BOOM

Sheriff's annual report tallies seizure of some 12,890 plants

After taking office a little more than a year ago, Sheriff Adam
Shepherd said cracking down on crimes related to drug use would pose
one of his greatest challenges and top priorities.

Some 2,000 stops for drug sales on the streets and even in the jails
proved Shepherd right.

The sheriff relied heavily on the Drug, Gang and Violent Crime Task
Force to help tackle the drug problem, with meth and prescription
drugs ever prevalent and heroin use growing.

Sheriff Adam Shepherd

In the Gila County Sheriff's Office's first-ever annual report,
deputies said they seized more than $16.6 million in illegal drugs
last year. Almost all of that came from the 12,890 marijuana plants
the task force seized during some 90 marijuana eradication
investigations.

Beyond plants, the task force brought in $110,000 worth of marijuana,
$27,000 in methamphetamine and $22,500 in heroin. The task force only
seized 178 prescription pills, a value of $3,560. In fact, officers
confiscated more "shrooms" ($7,380) than prescription drugs.
Nationally, the abuse of prescription drugs accounts for more deaths
than all the illegal drugs combined.

Leading the task force was Travis Baxley, who Shepherd helped promote
to the position given his history on the task force of making large
busts.

Baxley wasn't the only person reassigned. Nearly every top
administrative position in the department has changed since Shepherd
took charge.

His close-knit team includes Johnny Sanchez, chief deputy; Mike
Johnson, undersheriff; and Sarah White, chief administrative officer.

"It took me some time to assemble the administrative team that I
wanted to move forward with my administration," he said. "I was
careful to choose people who had the same vision that I did for the
agency, that although we may not be the best paid, the best equipped,
or whatever excuse we might come up with, that we don't have to act
like it."

White put together the annual report, the first for the office as a
way to add transparency and accountability. Both were top goals when
he took office, together with improving communication with residents.

"I really want to stress that we encourage feedback, whether positive
or not so positive, about anything we are doing," he said. "We like to
hear the good stuff, but it is usually the not-so-good stuff that
actually helps us improve our services."

The annual report provided a snapshot of the budget, arrests and
training.

The sheriff's office administers one of the largest budgets in the
county. Last year's $10.6 million budget included $4 million for
patrol and $3.9 million to run the jails.

Patrol

Some 45 deputies work patrol in the county, which stretches across
17,400 miles, going from north of Pine-Strawberry to down past Globe.

Nearly two-dozen dispatchers patched more than 20,000 emergency calls
through to deputies.

Of those, 1,500 resulted in traffic citations and 280 involved motor
vehicle accidents.

The report didn't classify 1,066 of those traffic accidents. The
remaining traffic tickets included 420 for speeding, 17 for criminal
speeding and one for an aggressive driver. Citations also included 40
DUIs and 20 DUIs with drugs. Deputies handed out only 15 underage
drinking violations.

Of the 573 arrests, 216 resulted in felony charges, 186 suspects were
cited and released and 171 were charged with a misdemeanor.

On the alarm side, the office handled 395 theft and 238 burglary
calls.

Jail

Deputies booked 3,570 people into the jail last year. That amounts to
nearly 11 percent of the county's population -- although many of the
inmates came from outside the county.

The Globe jail accounted for 2,006 bookings and the Payson jail for
1,600.

Almost all the Payson prisoners were either quickly released or
transferred to Globe, which has a larger jail and newer facilities.
Still, those facilities face security issues due to crowding and
out-of-date technology. This year deputies repeatedly found inmates
with drugs they had smuggled in and a detention officer even helped
bring in contraband for an inmate.

Although most inmates are held in Globe, North County residents not
facing a jury trial still attend court in Payson. That means the
county constantly shuffles prisoners back and forth from Globe to
Payson for hearings. In all, staff transported 5,874 inmates to court
covering a total of 262,000 miles.

The cost and risk to shuttle prisoners between Payson and Globe
remains a constant concern for Shepherd, but he sees little prospect
for change.

Programs

Another goal of Shepherd's was keeping specialty programs like the
narcotics task force and school resource officer programs going in
spite of shrinking budgets to do so.

"We have kept them afloat and I credit that to the resourcefulness of
my employees and their reorganization of certain areas within the office."

Another goal was standardizing procedures across the office, from
firearms to training. But this also had to be done with little money.
One solution was trading seized firearms at gun shops for new weapons
for deputies. In all, 105 seized weapons were traded, a cost savings
of $13,700.

Training

In the area of training, the office made significant strides, Shepherd
said.

In all, the office provided 4,700 hours of training to officers,
dispatchers, lake patrol and detention officers. Another 682 hours
went to training outside agencies, which often pay for the training.

Volunteers

Along with recruiting paid employees, the office is always looking to
expand its volunteers program. "The job is just too big to get done
strictly with paid employees and I highly value our non-paid
workforces for the services they are able to provide."

The office saves money by relying on volunteers at crime scenes,
natural disasters and rescues. In all, volunteers saved the office
$543,000 in fiscal year 2013. The Payson Posse contributions had a
value of $200,000 and Tonto Rim Search and Rescue contributions
totaled $174,000.

Founded in 1967, the Payson Posse today has 29 members, who provide
extra support whenever the office calls. While not certified officers,
many volunteers are trained to carry firearms.

Volunteers go on patrol, guard crime scenes, offer traffic control and
most importantly, transport prisoners. Payson's posse members traveled
nearly 26,000 miles last year for a total of 6,200 hours.

The Globe Posse, with 12 members, worked half those hours, driving
16,000 miles.

TRSAR continued to provide search and rescue assistance that no other
group in the county can match. Its 81 members went on 27 missions,
giving 5,470 hours to look for lost and injured hikers, fallen
climbers and missing persons.

And the Mounted Posse, which often works alongside TRSAR, hauling rope
gear and pulling injured hikers out on litters using "horsepower" gave
1,100 hours of time.

Two offices, one job

Shepherd campaigned for sheriff on a promise to remain more visible in
Payson and Globe. So he splits his time evenly between the two
offices, something the former sheriff rarely did.

Shepherd vowed to follow through with this promise and staff and
residents soon came to depend on Shepherd being in Payson every Monday
and Friday.
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MAP posted-by: Matt