Sacramento County Sheriff to Cut 209 Deputies…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness says he will need to lay off 209 deputies because of budget cuts. That’s nearly double the number of deputies McGinness had previously said he would lay off after the county board of supervisors adopted it’s budget.
McGinness sent a memo to his staff Friday apologizing for conveying “a more promising picture that I currently believe to be valid.”McGinness wrote that the layoffs will be a “a huge hit to public safety.”
In addition to another 80 deputies, the sheriff is proposing to cut 22 non-sworn department employees.
The Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association has urged the county to restore $15 million to offset the additional cuts.
Patrol staffing will be knocked down by 74 percent – leaving just 10 cars patrolling the entire unincorporated county at any given time. Detective staffing will be halved. Helicopters will be grounded, the Problem-Oriented Policing program will be disbanded and dispatchers will be in triage mode as they assign precious few resources to calls for service.
The department will look “pre-1970,” said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran.
“While the population of the county has grown exponentially and so has crime, we’ll have the same number of deputies patrolling the streets ofSacramento County as we did in 1970,” Curran said. “The impact will be devastating to the taxpaying citizens of Sacramento.”
On Friday, McGinness said his department will have to lay off 80 more deputies than initially anticipated – for a total of 209 – to cut $57 million. In addition, 22 non-sworn employees will be laid off.
“There’s nothing good about it,” he said, “unless you’re a criminal.”
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