In defense of Sheriff Chuck Atkins: I do not know if Mr. Darrell Murray’s claimed “ years of working with police groups” includes the responsibility of scheduling ongoing, daily staffing of personnel (“Sheriff should withdraw policy,” Our Readers’ Views, March 22). It appears not. The sheriff warned everyone back in July of last year: “We can no longer sustain the patrol calls for service (due to) staffing shortage.” What part of “no longer” don’t we understand?
Clark County has the lowest ratio of deputies to population: 0.65 per thousand. Factor in sick leave, vacation, FMLA, and the very real incidents requiring emergency response. Consider the political climate of government jurisdictions more attuned to social work at the expense of law enforcement. Consider how deputies cover two to three normal workloads. Consider the harried communications worker, who is expected to dispatch a nonexistent first responder to a violent crime in progress. The caller, often in crisis, has priority over nonviolent misdemeanors.
Yes, Mr. Murray: “Sooner or later a gun will come out and there will be blood.” But it won’t be because someone’s Amazon package was stolen off the porch. Nor will it be on the sheriff’s hands. It will because it is “business as usual” in our own small part of the Pacific Northwest.
