Sheriff details cost-saving measures

MONTROSE — Necessity is the mother of invention, especially at an under-funded sheriff's department.

Montrose County Sheriff Rick Dunlap told the local Republican central committee Thursday of several measures — some money-saving and others that benefit the department overall —he's been able to implement in recent months.

Under a state law sponsored by Rep. Ray Rose, R-Montrose, counties are allowed to charge jail inmates a $30 booking fee to offset the costs of their incarceration. Collected in Montrose County since last October, the booking fees will now enable the sheriff to at last obtain Tasers — less-lethal devices that fire electrodes into suspects and disable them with electrical currents.

The Montrose County Sheriff's Office currently has none of the potentially life-saving devices.

"A lot of time Tasers, just by their mere presence, can de-escalate a situation," Dunlap told the Daily Press Friday. "It's just another tool available to deputies to prevent the use of lethal force."

Dunlap will be purchasing between 25 and 30 Tasers once he obtains a price quote from Taser International, a company that also awarded the MCSO a grant for one Taser.

Dunlap already has a deputy certified to instruct others in Taser use.

As a cost-savings measure, Dunlap is phasing out the MCSO's current fleet of Ford Expeditions and Escapades in favor of pickup trucks that get better mileage.

The Fords will be replaced as they hit the maximum allowable mileage and become due for rotation. The new vehicles will be either Ford F-150 trucks or GM half-ton trucks, both of which are slightly cheaper than the current units and get an estimated 18 to 20 miles per gallon, versus the older vehicles' mpg of 14.

Dunlap said he's already obtained one pickup, an F-150 for the West End, which came fully equipped with light bar, cage and controls, excluding radio.

"It was actually cheaper than it would've been had we bought another Ford Explorer or Expedition," he said. "We had been experiencing some shutdown problems on the Expedition. If it reached a certain angle, if you were going around a curve, the engine would shut down. Deputies were experiencing steering problems and brake problems on these vehicles."

Dunlap was also able to shave a few hundred dollars off the cost of each unit, by having a local sign company stripe and mark the new vehicles. He's dropped the sheriff's star logo from the design scheme, because it is too expensive to emblazon the patrol units with them.

The MCSO also benefited from an unlooked for federal bonus, under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The MCSO received a $54,000 grant from SCAAP in June, to offset the costs of housing illegal immigrants in jail.

Recently, Justice Benefits, Inc., the consulting firm that located and obtained the initial grant, discovered the feds had paid $3 million less nationwide than they were supposed to under SCAAP. Montrose County's cut of the additional payments was $8,600, which Dunlap will use to purchase mandated inmate supplies.

Dunlap said the extra money saves him from having to ask the county commissioners for a budget amendment for the supplies.

For the department as a whole, Dunlap has been able to increase the base pay for starting deputies to $37,314, up from the $34,000 range previously in place. That helps the MCSO compete with other agencies for staff, and also with retention, the sheriff said.

"It's still quite a bit below the starting wage for the Montrose Police Department, however, it's a step in the right direction," Dunlap said.