Police could employ sheriff's staff for aid

City police mull paying the Sheriff's Office to help them file reports. Leaders have squabbled over the groups' jurisdictions.

By MICHAEL SANDLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 29, 2002

LARGO -- The Largo Police Department has considered hiring Pinellas County Sheriff's Office employees to type up crime reports.

It's a move many call a step toward consolidating law enforcement services between two agencies locked in a debate about who can best patrol mid-Pinellas County.

If approved, Largo would likely pay the sheriff's office to assume a task the city now pays a private vendor hundreds of thousands of dollars to handle.

Top officials from both agencies applaud this as "functional consolidation", an effort to make overall police work more efficient.

"We are prepared and ready to play ball with everyone," said Chief Deputy Jim Coats.

The new spirit of cooperation may not be enough to quell a growing turf war created by aggressive annexation policies adopted by cities in the neighboring unincorporated area. As Largo acquires more land, the sheriff's patrol territory shrinks.

The dispute about jurisdiction reached an apex this year at the Pinellas Assembly, when Sheriff Everett Rice and Largo City Manager Steven Stanton argued about who could better patrol the unincorporated areas.

Even as the two agencies talk about joining forces, the two men remain at odds.

Rice asserted that Largo and other cities would be better off letting his deputies patrol as the county's sole law enforcement agency.

"The municipal police departments were created to be an addition to what the sheriff is doing, and not in lieu," he said. "The people in Largo have double police protection -- they have the city police, and they have the sheriff."

Stanton said the county would be better served having the sheriff take on a broader role providing countywide services, instead of jockeying for jurisdiction over metropolitan patrol.

"If there was a level of trust, it would make a whole lot of sense to have a countywide dispatch organization," Stanton said.

Cost is another issue.

Stanton said city should not have to pay for using the sheriff's services because Largo taxpayers already pay a handsome portion of Rice's $172.6-million budget, a point raised by other city officials at the assembly.

Rice has said the budget is fair, but he has hired a private consultant to review the distribution. His office provides several services at no added cost, such as air patrol and forensics on major crimes. But with a city the size of Largo, he would need to charge some fee to cover the cost of adding personnel.

Many involved hope the pilot program discussed would smooth some of the political rhetoric.

"They are almost two globably different issues," said Largo Police Chief Lester Aradi . "On the street, our officers and the deputies get along."

Aradi and Coats have talked about testing it out with a squad of approximately six Largo officers dictating their reports to civilian clerks. The clerks currently take reports over the phone from sheriff's deputies.

Even thought the city pays nearly $300,000 to have a private company take the reports, city workers must retype data from the finished reports into Largo's computer system to satisfy the state's requirements for uniform crime statistics.

Paying the sheriff's office, which charges approximately $9 per report, would save them time and money, and the reports would be available the moment the clerk pushes SEND.

Functional consolidation is hardly new to Pinellas County. Since 1993, the Clearwater Police Department has paid the sheriff's office a hefty sum to lift fingerprints, process crime scenes and store evidence. This year's contract pays Rice's office nearly $500,000.

"We are getting a higher level of service than we could provide for ourselves," said Clearwater Police Chief Sid Klein. "We've tried to focus on our primary mission, active patrols, prevention of crime and the kind of things that are the core of the police mission."

Aradi said Largo has explored a similar course and is trying to determine what services his department should perform in-house, and what could be done by the sheriff.

"It's almost like playing chess," Aradi said.

"As cities expand and grow in Pinellas, sheriff patrols are getting smaller. Yet there are more needs for other services -- the jail, marine patrol, air support. I'm trying to forecast in my mind where law enforcement is going to be in 5 to 10 years -- not only in Largo but in Pinellas County."

Aradi and Coats like the idea of having a shared records system, so departments can communicate more efficiently.

Coats said Sept. 11 demonstrated that federal agencies communicate poorly with one another. He said the same could be said for local law enforcement. City and county must work together.

"This is a very important issue to me," Coats said. "I think it could make law enforcement so much more efficient."

-- Michael Sandler can be reached at 445-4174 or sandler@sptimes.com.

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