Sheriff denied four new road deputies
By Donna Comella

For Sheriff Richard Pisciotti to publicly admonish county legislators is not out of the ordinary. He has, in the past, accused the Wayne County Board of Supervisors of acting politically rather than responsibly. He did so again yesterday.

Pisciotti had requested to add four road patrol deputies to his force with a three-year financial assist from a Federal Government grant program. According to the Sheriff, the request failed in committee and, therefore, never made it to the full board. But he brought his case to the full board, anyway, telling the 15 town supervisors that he did so out of 'frustration and disappointment.'

Telling the Board he had 'nothing to lose' by speaking his mind, he said, '...I don't work for the 15 people (in this room), I work for the entire population of 95,000... I don't care if I'm politically correct, law enforcement is not a partisan issue.'

Supervisor Don Colvin (Savannah) stood after Pisciotti took his seat. Colvin sits on both committees that had squashed the sheriff's request - he heads the Finance Committee and is one of five supervisors on the Public Safety Committee. Colvin said that state statistics show the area crime rate to be down 19 percent since 1997. He added, that since 1991, the county budget is up 36 %, the Public Safety budget up 60 %, and that the people on Pisciotti's payroll went from 128 to 161. He also mentioned the cost of the jail expansion, and the new million dollar car locator system, before he concluded, 'The Finance Committee and the Public Safety Committee considered all these things when we turned down your request.'

Pisciotti claimed that the state's reclassification of certain crimes distort the crime rate statistics, and that the budget figures don't reflect the money saved from the jail expansion - money, for instance, not spent on transporting and housing inmates at other facilities.

He had told supervisors that he didn't believe the committee system worked, and elaborated later. Referring to a 2-2 Public Safety vote that killed his request, he asserted, 'If you think about it, two people destroyed this opportunity for the entire county. You send a critical issue into committee and it dies there.' Pisciotti then vowed to resubmit his request.

The Sheriff explained that the people added to his staff, referred to by Colvin, included jail officers needed to staff the expanded facility, part-time people used for transports, nursing staff and program staff. He said that the total $390,000 cost for the four new road patrol deputies and related equipment, would be 75 reimbursable for three years, through the Cops More grant - a program that Pisciotti said has put more than 100,000 officers on the streets.

Read more about the COPS grants.

Are COPS grants all they're cracked up to be?

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