Where's everybody going?

BOCC and SCSO discuss solutions for high deputy turnover rate

By CHANSE WATSON

Managing Editor

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) has had a large to-do list for many years now when it comes to improvements.

An aging building, miles-heavy patrol vehicles, and a lack of local doughnut shops adjacent to the Sheriff’s Office are among several issues that have been in need of tackling for some time now (maybe not so much on that last one).

But one of, if not the most important, issues that has needed to be addressed there is the incredibly high deputy turn-over rate.

Compared to the other law enforcement agencies that surround them in Idaho, the SCSO is at the bottom of the barrel in regard to the number of years a deputy will stay on at the office with an average of 3.8 years.

Most neighboring agencies average around 6 to 7 years, but that rate is even higher in some departments.

Because of this low retention rate, SCSO has had to work with a lack of experienced deputies.

Its has gotten to the point that some SCSO deputies with only a little over a year of experience in law enforcement are currently training new hires.

In order to get the bottom of this issue, the Shoshone County Board of Commissioners and Sheriff’s Office leadership are in the process of making changes that will incentivize deputies to not only come to the county, but stick around as well.

In the first of two meetings held on Tuesday, April 25, the groups identified the current problems holding back employee retention and what their ultimate goals are.

Some of the main problems identified are a low starting wage, an inconvenient pay matrix, and limited rewards for extended service.

Currently, all sheriff’s deputies (officer, standard deputy, and even office staff) are subject to the same pay scale that all other county employees follow which is based on pay grades.

For example, a grade eight officer at SCSO receives the same pay as any other grade eight county employee in another department.

This also applies to raises as well.

When the idea of giving raises has been suggested in the past to tenured deputies, it was not feasible due to how the pay matrix worked.

If one SCSO veteran in a certain grade wanted a raise, all county employees with that same grade would have to get a raise as well; regardless of position.

By creating a separate pay matrix for officers at SCSO, deputies can actually be rewarded for staying on; giving them more of a reason to stick around and make SCSO’s rate of pay more competitive with neighboring agencies.

“If you retain them, as you keep the years going...you are putting out a better product and you have a seasoned deputy on the street.”

Gunderson’s goal is to bump up the Sheriff’s Office average deputy longevity rate to 7 years.

Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald says that these meetings are incredibly important to determine what areas need work to fix this problem and to make sure that they are not wasting taxpayer funds.

“We are not competitive,” Fitzgerald said when referring to other agencies pay rates, “and we need to fix this.”

The Shoshone News-Press will provide a follow up story on this matter after the second meeting on May 3 when the specifics of the new pay matrix are proposed and discussed.