Fauquier County set to hire three deputies in new year

The school resource officers assigned to the courts for the past three months could soon resume their regular duties.

At its meeting last Thursday, the board of supervisors approved a resolution “to establish three full-time permanent deputy sheriff positions to support the courts.”

As proposed by Sheriff Charlie Ray Fox Jr., one current position that had been “frozen” in recent budget cycles will be unfrozen and funded. Two new positions will also be created.

“Once we get the [new] positions established, we can release [the school resource officers pulled from the middle schools] back to their positions,” said Lt. Col. Paul F. Mercer Jr.

Depending on the applicants, the hiring process and “getting everyone up to par” could take six to eight weeks, Mercer said.

In that case, the SROs will be back in the middle schools by the end of March.

A financial impact analysis presented to the board along with the resolution shows the addition of three field deputies would cost $93,000 in fiscal year 2012.

Predicated upon a Jan. 1 hiring date, the annual cost for the three positions in fiscal 2013 would be $190,884.

However, county staff identified $125,000 in operational savings, mostly from the Sheriff’s Office budget.

“We analyzed their spending trends and found money allocated for other activities and equipment they haven’t spent that can be reallocated for personnel,” said county Budget Director Ari Sky.

Consequently, the positions won’t have any net impact for FY 2012 and about $65,000 net impact in FY 2013.

Lee District Supervisor Chester Stribling also sits on the board’s public safety committee.

He commended county law enforcement officials for finding a way to fund the positions and said the board had no difficulty backing the plan.

“They did a good job,” he said. “This was a definite need and we want to have all the courthouse security we can [given what] we can reasonably afford.”

The board passed the resolution as part of its consent agenda.

Mandated to provide courthouse security but faced with limited manpower, Sheriff ’s Office administrators pulled school resource officers out of the middle schools to provide more court coverage as a stopgap measure Mercer said.

High school SROs, road deputies and investigators have responded to incidents at the middle schools when the need has arisen, he said.

Law enforcement officials brought the need for more court deputies to the county’s attention several months ago.

First, they appealed to the public safety committee, then to the personnel committee before taking the request to the entire board.

“We knew it would be a long process,” Mercer said. “But we can’t continue robbing Peter to pay Paul.”