PINAL COUNTY (By Josh Kelley, Arizona
Republic) August 25, 2005 - The board of supervisors has approved the
hiring of 16 sheriff's deputies to patrol the high-growth areas of the
county.
Sheriff Chris Vásquez said in an interview earlier this month that he plans to deploy the additional deputies in two regions.
A new squad of deputies will be assigned to the region around Casa Grande, Eloy and Maricopa, while others will patrol an area from Apache Junction and Gold Canyon south to Johnson Ranch, Florence and Coolidge.
"That's where our heaviest growth is right now, in those two regions, and that's where our heaviest calls for service are coming from," Vásquez said.
"These two squads, their intent is to put the rubber where the road is and get out there and help answer our increased calls for service."
The sheriff is adding one or two sworn personnel, paid with state funding, to investigate gangs across the county, including Superior where arson fires earlier this summer appear to be gang-related, Vásquez said.
He plans to add nine deputies to work in Maricopa, which is contracted with the Sheriff's Office to pay for police service.
In the coming year, Vásquez plans to add a commercial vehicle inspection team consisting of four deputies and a sergeant along with two or three officers from another law enforcement agency in the county.
Vásquez said funding for the squad will come from a federal grant obtained by the state Department of Public Safety, whose director, Roger Vanderpool, was Pinal County sheriff until being appointed to his new position by Gov. Janet Napolitano this year.
The federal grant will be used to pay for more DPS commercial vehicle inspectors and the inspection squad in Pinal County, Vásquez said.
Vásquez said he will need the Board of Supervisors to provide funding for more than 16 additional deputies per year to keep up with growth and shorten response times.
His staff will increase to about 180 sworn deputies in the coming year.
"I don't have anything that's really proactive," Vásquez said.
"We've had to disperse everything just to answer the calls for service. We used to have a traffic unit, and we used to have a K-9 unit . . . but we had to disperse it and put them on squads just to handle the calls for service."
Sheriff Chris Vásquez said in an interview earlier this month that he plans to deploy the additional deputies in two regions.
A new squad of deputies will be assigned to the region around Casa Grande, Eloy and Maricopa, while others will patrol an area from Apache Junction and Gold Canyon south to Johnson Ranch, Florence and Coolidge.
"That's where our heaviest growth is right now, in those two regions, and that's where our heaviest calls for service are coming from," Vásquez said.
"These two squads, their intent is to put the rubber where the road is and get out there and help answer our increased calls for service."
The sheriff is adding one or two sworn personnel, paid with state funding, to investigate gangs across the county, including Superior where arson fires earlier this summer appear to be gang-related, Vásquez said.
He plans to add nine deputies to work in Maricopa, which is contracted with the Sheriff's Office to pay for police service.
In the coming year, Vásquez plans to add a commercial vehicle inspection team consisting of four deputies and a sergeant along with two or three officers from another law enforcement agency in the county.
Vásquez said funding for the squad will come from a federal grant obtained by the state Department of Public Safety, whose director, Roger Vanderpool, was Pinal County sheriff until being appointed to his new position by Gov. Janet Napolitano this year.
The federal grant will be used to pay for more DPS commercial vehicle inspectors and the inspection squad in Pinal County, Vásquez said.
Vásquez said he will need the Board of Supervisors to provide funding for more than 16 additional deputies per year to keep up with growth and shorten response times.
His staff will increase to about 180 sworn deputies in the coming year.
"I don't have anything that's really proactive," Vásquez said.
"We've had to disperse everything just to answer the calls for service. We used to have a traffic unit, and we used to have a K-9 unit . . . but we had to disperse it and put them on squads just to handle the calls for service."
