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March 28, 2024

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Letter: Reserve deputies offer vital services

By Robert Byrd, Vancouver
Published: July 20, 2021, 6:00am

Do you miss the reserve deputies yet?

Were you frustrated by Clark County’s failure to enforce the fireworks ban? Then ask Sheriff Atkins why he fired the county’s reserve deputies.

Every year, reserve deputies help the fire marshal with fireworks patrols across the county. Their volunteer work keeps our community safe and peaceful. But not this year.

Without reserves to help with the huge volume of complaints, the fire marshal and sheriff’s office were completely overwhelmed.

Fireworks enforcement is just one of the many vital services the reserves are ideally suited for.

If you think you are being poorly served by the sheriff’s office, you’re right. Clark County has the lowest per-capita number of deputies of the 39 counties in Washington. But despite being dead last, Sheriff Atkins chose to cut the reserves, voluntarily giving up another 10 percent of the county’s commissioned deputies.

Sheriff Atkins has turned his shortage of deputies into a crisis. Since it’s due to his mismanagement, I urge the Clark County Council not to give him the extra money he now wants to pay deputies to replace the reserves who were serving for free.

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