Area sheriffs: Help wanted

Cole County Sheriff's Department patrol vehicle
Cole County Sheriff's Department patrol vehicle

Hiring and keeping effective staff members is a constant battle for sheriff's departments across Mid-Missouri, and there doesn't seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel.

"When you call 911, who is going to show up?" Osage County Sheriff Mike Bonham said. "Fewer young people are signing up to protect and serve."

Bonham acknowledged working in law enforcement can be dangerous and stressful with long hours, and the pay isn't particularly enticing. But, he said, law enforcement officers say the job can be rewarding, and they're working to spread that message to attract new talent.

"The recruitment difficulties are not because of any special requirements for job candidates coming from the sheriff's office; it is simply more difficult to find people who have lived a morally correct life, and it's the hardest I've ever seen trying to find those people," Bonham said.

Callaway County Sheriff Clay Chism said his current budget allows him as many as 15 road deputies. He's currently down one position with a new hire starting in December.

"Since I took over Jan. 1, I have not had a full staff, and it has to do with all the personnel we have out for training," he said.

"That's the real difficulty - the time and the money it takes to hire and train a new deputy when one leaves," Bonham said. "It takes nine months - six months of academy and three months of in-field training. It's a long process."

That training costs $5,500 at the deputy's own expense if the potential hire hasn't already completed the training while working for a past employer, Chism said.

"It's an ongoing battle, especially in the jail," Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler said. "We've been running short on staff, so I'm having to use more money to pay overtime for those people we've got working now. We're always looking, and we'll do a hiring selection process soon. For a jailer, they have to do a 40-hour accreditation training on how to deal with things like hand-to-hand fighting and the proper way to use mace. We can't leave them by themselves - a new guy can't be by themselves two to three months."

Osage County is looking at three jail vacancies to fill in the near future, after recently struggling to fill four vacancies.

"The applicant pool is not staying ahead of our needs," Bonham said.

Often other surrounding area agencies serve as that applicant pool.

"Most of the time, we'll get people from those agencies come to us when we have an opening, and they see they can make more with us," Wheeler said. "We also work with the Law Enforcement Training Institute at the University of Missouri in Columbia."

Chism is allotted 21 jail officers in Callaway County, but he said he has not been at that level since taking office in January.

"Most days, we are down two to four officers," he said. "There's a dual reason for this issue: the salary and just the mere type of work that those employees have to perform."

The starting salary for a corrections officer in Callaway County is $28,000 a year and $33,000 for a road deputy. In Cole County it's $29,000 to start at the county jail and $35,000 for a starting road deputy.

In Osage County, Bonham said, the sheriff's department is conducting a salary study in efforts to bring his department to a competitive level.

"When I speak to sheriffs across the state, anybody outside of the metro areas, salaries makes the difference," Chism said.

"My position here in Callaway has me competing with Cole, Boone and those municipalities, all of which pay substantially higher than what we do in Callaway. We are a training ground to go to a higher-paying agency."