Garland County Sheriff Mike McCormick said Monday that implementing a level of accountability is one of his top priorities, singling out a recent escape of juvenile prisoners as an example.
"One thing that became clear early on in the campaign was that the department needed some reorganization and focusing on accountability and professionalism, from the lowest ranks all the way through the department," he said during a speech to the Oaklawn Rotary Club at the Austin Convention Hotel & Spa.
Referring to a recent escape by two juveniles from the Juvenile Detention Center because a number of doors were left unlocked, McCormick said it was a good opportunity to show the level of accountability that will be expected.
"In talking to some of the employees who got in trouble with that, I heard two or three times that nothing was done in the past. But this is a new time and a new administration, and all will be held to the same level of accountability. So the message is getting across, and what that does is actually bring morale up because other employees realize they have new standards," he said.
The reason for the laxity that allowed the short-lived escape "falls basically on staff within the department not following policies and procedures in place, so we're emphasizing policies and doing training to let them know the importance of following procedures. It was a blatant not following of procedures in place," McCormick said in answer to a question.
"Former Sheriff Larry Sanders did an outstanding job, and I want to build on a lot of the things that he has done," McCormick said.
"I've heard over and over from the public that their crimes weren't being followed up on properly. I even spoke to Larry and he said the resources available didn't match the level of crime that was going on in Garland County, and they were covered up," McCormick said.
He said he also spoke with investigators in the department who said their job was "a paper-shuffling job" and they were covered up with major occurrences such as homicides and robberies, and crimes of less significance didn't get a lot of attention.
"I knew I had to focus on lower-level crimes, and brought on Gary Ashcraft, who was a former Hot Springs police chief. Most of his career was in criminal investigation, so I put him in charge of the Criminal Investigation Division, and we've made some great strides in the way we're investigating crimes. I haven't heard from anyone since the first of the year that they aren't getting a response from the sheriff's office when they are the victim of a crime," McCormick said.
McCormick said he has done a lot of reorganization within the department since the first of the year to make sure time is being managed properly, and he is working to get more manpower, which is a work in progress that will get better through the year.
He said he also wants to change the department from a reactive mode to being more proactive, and is working in that direction by beefing up the patrol division, which at times only had two deputies patrolling the 800 square miles that make up Garland County.
"That was unacceptable, but with resources tight in county government and in the department, I had to look within the department and reorganize the various division and the manpower. I've been able to add one additional patrol deputy to each of the four patrol shifts, and I've mandated that we'll never have less than four patrol deputies patrolling Garland County at any given time," he said.
Also high on his priority list is the creation of a crime scene unit that focuses on drug-related activity, McCormick said.
"We've got the drug task force that focuses on bigger, larger drug operations, but we haven't had a unit in Garland County in quite a while that focuses on the lower level meth houses and meth labs. I'm not proud to say that Garland County probably leads the state in meth labs, so we've got to put a bigger focus on that," he said.
Due to limited financial resources over the past years, McCormick said he thinks proper training was not in place in the department, and he wants to place a major refocus on that, which is also a work in progress and will take years to get the department to the point where it needs to be.
"Make no mistake, we have some great guys within the department, but there is still room for improvements. We're going to focus more on supervisory training in the near future and I think you'll see the result of that bleed all the way down," he said.
McCormick said he also felt it was important to initiate an Internal Affairs board that would investigate issues when they come up.
"We're working hard to put that in place so when we receive a complaint from the community, or we realize a problem, the board will follow through and investigate and provide a recommendation back to us. It's real important that we have the same level of discipline and accountability for everyone -- from the newest to the most senior person, including me," he said.
The sheriff's department's policies and procedures are also being reworked, so officers will have an up-to-date policy manual they can rely on to provide guidance, "but they have to know they will be held accountable," McCormick said.
McCormick said that once the new detention center is in operation, more misdemeanor inmates will be housed and the ones who volunteer can be used to beef up the department's litter crews.
"Last year, in Garland County, we picked up about 110,000 pounds of litter along the roadways, and our deputies logged more than 800 miles with the litter crews. We've had our hands tied in the past year because the jail is so full that most all the prisoners are at the felony level and we can't have felons out picking up trash because they would escape and we don't want to give them an added advantage," he said.
He also told the Rotarians that construction crews would hopefully be out of the new jail in a "month and a half or so," and then the detention officers would have to train "so we can make sure we have all the bases covered and all the security devices have been checked and rechecked. I don't want to have the detention center open and have a mass escape. I don't want it one second before it's ready, even if that is June or July," he said.
Local on 03/03/2015