One can argue that maybe a lot might not be going on, but the last two accidents that had happened, happened during these hours. Robbing peter to pay paul, can eventually catch up to you. Trying to have these officers help cover 2nd shift and go into 3rd shift, leaves those two officers at risk since help is less quick to come due to staff shortages.

And to use the argument that it saves tax dollars can be very weak. When an officer gets hurt to the degree that Officer Johnson did, you the taxpayer pay for that. All thoses workers comp claims eventually come out of your tax dollars. Again, maybe we should start reviewing some higher level positions and make some cuts there. Not with deputies on the highways. Only two immediate squads is criminal. And we all know Sheriff Clarke is aware of staffing shortages and how many people are out on the road. Please, the guy is not a moron.

The concentration needs to be on preventative, not what to do after it happens. These deputies risk their lives everyday, this issue can’t be about politics and union lines. If they can’t work together on this the community will not follow suite and will never learn to be appreciative of what they do for this community.

Night time is when the “big” stuff happens….crashes are bigger, and most fatalites occur overnight. The freaks come out at night is an old song, but anyone’s who’s worked third shift knows this is a true statement around here.

It would be interesting to see how much overtime has been spent by having to hold over deputies past 4am for an event that started at 3. Even a basic drunk driving arrest takes over an hour to complete. Could it be this temporary change has actually cost moeny instead of saving it? The most recent example: The fatal accident that happened last Friday night happened at 3am. The deputies who were supposed to leave at 4am weren’t relieved until after 6am, when first shift came in.

Speaking of “temporary”, it will be interesting to see if a particular sergeant sent back(from the Jail) to Patrol(Parks), allegedly just for the summer, will return to the jail to finish his punishment for cheating his way through a management course(the other person caught with him was FIRED by her department). He spent about one month in the jail before he convinved the powers that be that he was FAR too valuable to be wasted in a jail assignment. Never mind the fact that he’s a cheater and embarrassment to the agency. But I digress…..

So at what time does the staff shortage occur?

And yes, you’ve been wrong in the past from time to time.

So basically what you’re saying regarding this argument is that it’s a non-starter.

TAX dollars are not being saved- deputies start earlier, there is nor real reduction in staffing, just a change in start times. So for the SAME money spent- you get 2 deputies from 4-6.

Although I don’t have facts to back it up, I would estimate that a majority of accidents where alcohol is a factor happen BEFORE 4am.

It’s also true and accurate that the LEAST amount of vehicles are on the freeways between 4am-7am which would lend itself to have the fewest amount of deputies on the road thus saving taxpayer dollars while providing adequate safety.

Even if you were to “occupy” the freeways between midnight and 6am, you wouldn’t catch every drunk driver.

Anecdotal evidence would also seem to point to drunk driving accidents occuring on state highways and side streets based on the proximity of oncoming traffic…those roads are NOT patrolled by the MCSO.

If anyone has stats on stuff like that, it would be interesting to see.

It’s a question of deputy safety, as I see it, I could care less about the tickets etc when my friends are being hit because there aren’t enough squads on the road to protect them when they are out of the cars. Politics, money, personal bias aside, Deputies will continue to get hit, even killed, if the number of squads keeps being reduced. The majority of incidents involving deputies being hit occurs at NIGHT, not during the day. It’s hard enough to put myself in Tim Johnson’s shoes- he, thankfully, made a wonderful recovery… It’s impossible to think of how the family of Dave Demos recovered from his loss.

Think about the size of the county, what the deputies do, the SPEED at which everyone travels, It’s NOT safe even during the day when there are 5 squads working. Whether Clarke knows or not is irrelevant- Lives are at stake. Rodney Richards knows it, he CAN change it… question is will he? I know he won’t.. his ego won’t allow it.

As is with almost any boss, it’s their way or you’re gone. I don’t know why that is such a shock to you. Since Clarke is running a quasi-military organization, his authority should be stronger than a typical company/organization.

The fact of the matter is that nothing happens in Clarke’s department without him knowing about it. With Clarke, it’s either his way or the highway.

How are we, as the general public, to know what is the best patrol schedule for the MCSO and the appropriate number of deputies to be used at any given time on our freeways?

How do we know that 2 (or 4) patrols is not enough at that time of night? I certainly don’t want people telling me how to do my job if they’ve never done it before.

Jim, you need to be more careful in interviewing disgruntled deputies whose hatred of Clarke borders on obsession. They will make anything and everything into Clarke’s fault…much like the deranged people who blame everything on President Bush.

Or, are you suggesting that Clarke may not know about this blunder?