Jackson County Sheriff’s officers, staff going on new schedules to save fuel money

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: July 12, 2008

The high cost of fuel has led to some significant schedule changes at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office which will become effective tomorrow.

Deputies are going from eight-hour five-day shifts to longer shifts and fewer days per week in an effort to save the cost of daily travel from headquarters in Marianna to their assigned spots in one of the state’s geographically largest county.

With many of his 27 road deputies assigned to places like Graceville, Sneads, Alford and other areas far from Marianna, McDaniel said he hopes the savings will be significant.

And there are other changes in store, as well.

He’s putting his duty officers back on the road patrolling near headquarters, rather than stationing them in the building to wait for walk-in complaints or other unscheduled visits from the public. Instead, those wishing to file a non-emergency case report will have to call the communications center at 482-9648 to set up a time to meet the officer.

Dispatchers, at the same number, will continue to answer all calls and the department will be operating 24-7, he emphasized.

However, most of the office staff will be off on Fridays so the department can save money on power bills. The building’s air-conditioning will be either turned off in unoccupied areas or set to power-saving levels when staff is not on duty, McDaniel said.

Beginning Monday, July 14, the office hours for the Sheriff’s Office will be 7:30am until 5:30pm Monday-Thursday each week. 

The administrative office and investigations will be closed on Fridays and weekends.  The investigations division will have an on-call officer each week after hours and the days the office is closed. 

McDaniel said the department is $35,000 in the hole on budgeted fuel costs and has been forced to shift money from other places to keep deputies on the road.

“It’s showing a danger signal if we don’t do something immediately,” he said in talking of the schedule changes.

He said his officers will also encourage officers to try to handle some low-level non-emergency matters on the phone rather than automatically making a courtesy call at the home of the caller if the issue can be handled just as easily with some phone communications.