LETTER: Jeff Gahler Continues Discussion on Staffing Levels

Jeffrey Gahler, a Republican who in 2010, submitted a letter to local media last week criticizing recent comments about staffing levels made by the current sheriff.

Gahler contends Sheriff L. Jesse Bane presented false information about the ratio of deputies to the population.

Bane responded and writing his own letter to the editor.

Gahler submitted a second letter on the topic in response to Bane's comments.

Here is Gahler's second, unedited letter in its entirety:

I want to thank Sheriff Bane for responding to my letter and conceding to my presentation of the facts.  Integrity is the key that opens the communities trust and is the bridge that connects the community to its elected officials.  As the County’s chief law enforcement officer, Sheriff Bane is solely responsible for the proper deployment of the hard working public servants that make up the Sheriff’s Office and who work to keep our citizens and communities safe.  As Sheriff, it is also his duty to our citizens to ensure that every “foot” in the Sheriff’s Office is dedicated to fighting crime and disorder on our streets, not just those assigned to Patrol.

Much attention has been paid to this subject by the citizens of Harford County. I applaud the interest and the concern. Sheriff Bane has chosen to divert attention from the main issue of candor when laying the foundation for additional personnel by again trying to influence the citizens by stating “I don’t have that number to police the county" and “that the number of sworn deputies working for the Sheriff's Office does not translate to the number of feet on the street.”  While Sheriff Bane concedes that the statistics as outlined in my initial letter are indeed accurate, it is obvious that these quotes are yet another attempt to persuade the citizens of the need for additional deputies by still using the same misleading information.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) link (provided below) is to an article concerning Police Officer to Population Ratios.  As is clearly stated in the center of the article, “Ratios, such as officers-per-thousand population, are totally inappropriate as a basis for staffing decisions.”  The report concludes with reporting the average ratio of full time officers per 1,000 residents and shows that number for a population of 100,000 to 249,999 to be 1.9 officers.  Full time officers included in this calculation by the IACP includes all police officers regardless of their assignment (patrol, investigation, administrative or other).  With Harford County’s population at approximately 247,000, Harford County’s ratio of full time officers per 1,000 residents is in line with the national average, not below the average as Sheriff Bane would have one believe.  Sheriff Bane chooses to still espouse his claim of .8 officers per 1,000 residents while excluding the sworn deputies outside the patrol force.  He does this while also still using the national average as a target of 2.7 per 1,000 residents which is the average for populations larger than Harford County’s and includes all full time officers into the calculation.  Effectively, this is comparing apples to oranges and expecting no one will notice.  Although it is an inventive tactic, Sheriff Bane can’t have it both ways.  According to the County’s Fiscal 2012 budget, there are 291 sworn deputy positions.  This is exclusive of the 132 Correctional Deputy positions assigned to the Jail.  Regrettably, this is now another area where Sheriff Bane is hoping to cloud the staffing issue.  These figures can be found on page 501 of the County’s Budget Report (http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/Budget/Download/1713.pdf).

As a candidate for Sheriff in 2010, one of my main priorities was to ensure an adequate patrol force exists to meet the needs of Harford County’s citizens.  Data driven deployment is part of staffing an effective patrol force. Accurate, timely, and actionable data must be articulated to the community in order to fairly demonstrate the need for increasing the sworn staffing at the Sheriff’s Office. Transparency is key in any process where the people’s money is spent.  

Again, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the commitment and dedication of the women and men of the Sheriff’s Office and I applaud the great work done every day by the deputies in all assignments who police our communities.       

Sincerely,

Jeffrey R. Gahler

*Link to the IACP 2003 report is the most recent information I could locate:

http://www.theiacp.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=LF7xdWl1tPk%3D&tabid=87