Sheriff Chris Nocco knows the additional $6 million he’s asking for to fund the Pasco County Sheriff’s office this year isn’t a small amount. But it’s just the beginning as local law enforcement starts to fall behind neighbors like Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, and even the much smaller Hernando County.
(Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)
Nocco would prefer his additional funds not be part of any property tax increase, but no matter how the money is raised, his department desperately needs it.
“We’re already preparing for next year, like how many more deputies we’re going to need out on the street,” Nocco told The Laker last week. “Our biggest thing right now is that we have to stop losing members. It’s hurting us, and it’s coming at a very high cost.”
In a workshop last month with the Pasco County Commission, which sets his budget, Nocco said many of his veteran deputies and managers are leaving for better salaries and benefits with neighboring counties. Despite the commission’s attempt to raise salaries in recent years, there just hasn’t been enough money to stop the talent bleed.
Even worse, he said, the technology used by the sheriff’s office is quite outdated, and it’s preventing deputies from providing the level of service Nocco says residents in neighboring counties receive. For instance, a homeowner who has a mailbox knocked over could easily make a report using an online form — if that technology was available to Pasco County residents. Instead, a deputy has to physically go out and make a report, costing valuable time that could be saved otherwise.
Even if the salary and technology problems are addressed, the county still has another problem. Many counties average around 1.3 deputies per every 1,000 residents. In Pasco, that number is below one deputy per thousand. Just to catch up with current populations, Nocco needs 150 new deputies.
With new deputies, he will need a new district office, too, right where the population is growing the most.
“We are going to need many more deputies, and we’re going to need a fourth district in the (State Road) 54 corridor,” Nocco said. “We need to have a stronger presence in the Land O’ Lakes and Wesley Chapel area. Deputies who serve that area right now are based out of Dade City, and there has to be something much closer to serve those needs.”
Many of these issues aren’t even a part of this year’s proposed budget increase, which would bring the sheriff’s office budget close to $100 million.
And elected officials are listening. During a recent workshop, commissioners admitted taxes in Pasco were far too low, affecting the government’s ability to serve its people. With proposed budget increases from other departments needed as well, it seems impossible to keep taxes at the same level they were last year.
“I am for having a better-funded county government,” Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said recently. “Local government is not the same as our federal government, where I think there is a lot of waste. We have no hidden money, we have no extra money. We are all scraping by barely.”
But how much of those extra funds should go into the sheriff’s office is still a question for the commission, which has been weighing Nocco’s request carefully. Public safety may be a key measure to stimulate growth, but so is having a building department that can maintain a seamless working relationship with developers so that major projects, like a new Amazon.com facility, are not lost to neighboring counties, Commissioner Ted Schrader said.
“We want to continue to support public safety, but a lot of our other departments have suffered because of the financial constraints that we have been under,” Schrader said during a workshop last month.
Nocco is convinced the commission will help him with most, if not all, of his budget requests this year. But if the increase was tough to swallow this year, future requests might be even more difficult.
Yet, the sheriff’s office is willing to help in those areas, too, Nocco said. For instance, the call for more code enforcement can actually be handled by a group of volunteers trained and managed by the sheriff’s office.
“We will train them and provide them the tools they need to start writing code enforcement violations and target high-crime areas,” Nocco said. “This will let us focus on areas where abandoned or neglected structures are used over and over again for drug houses and other crime.”
In all, there is a lot more the sheriff’s office can do to help other departments, Nocco said, and soften the impact of potentially higher taxes to residents.
“We are not wasting taxpayer dollars. Instead, we are very efficient,” he said. “I know our commissioners are being pulled in a thousand different directions, but I also think they realize that public safety is a priority.”
Published July 9, 2014
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