Program October 25th- Sheriff Jack Welsh

Kathy introduced our speaker, Sheriff Jack Welsh.

 

He started the day with a joke that he was the only one from the county here to help the city.

He has 4 major budgets for the year.

Law Enforcement                            3.5 Million

Jail                                                  4 Million

Animal Control                                  150,000. Funded by dog license

Central Dispatch                               Fund with the telephone surcharge

Special Traffic                                    Funded by the State

 

The county jail can house up to 287 inmates. 

They bill inmates for their time there by only 1 – 2% actually ever pay.

About 20 state inmates are housed there and the state pays them $35 per bed per day.

They have a pod system but have to be careful what inmates they put together.  They have big liability issues when they mix the wrong inmates.  It takes 42 employees to run the jail.  They outsource the meals and medical treatment for the inmates.  The state tells them how many employees they have to have on each shift. 

The department is in the process of a 1.5 million dollar upgrade to their computer systems so the officers can type their own reports in the car and send them to the supervisor for approval.  Currently they hand write them and there is another department that types them. 

The department has about 100 volunteers for such things as the mounted division, reserve deputies, dive team, victim service unit & explorers post.

The department also handles medical examiner investigation, motorcycle division, school liaison officer, drug team, 1 tracking dog, CCW permits.

They currently have an agreement with Jackson County to share training cost.  They hold a monthly detective’s meeting, and are working a drug take back program allowing people to turn in prescription drugs so they don’t get in the wrong hands.

Crime has increased within the state violent crime is up 11% and property crime is up 14%. Jack feels this is due to 3500 less police officers on the streets because of budget cuts.

Jack did not accept the county administrator’s budget, so he has proposed his own.

Cuts the Lenawee sheriff’s department has made recently are: retired swat team, retired 1 tracking dog, and they are down 11 officers from road patrol.

In the evenings the state police, Cambridge Township, and Raisin Township go off duty.  The Sheriff’s department has 3 road cars on duty and they are covering about 60,000 people.

Since the Adrian State Police Post has closed it has added to the strains of the department they have to handle all of the registered sex offenders, and CCW permits on top of all the regular duties.