By Alliyah Sims | Fox31
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) —The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office hopes an extra $5,000 will help with recruitment efforts.
It’s a part of a new initiative to address staffing shortages.
“All law enforcement agencies, police departments, sheriff’s offices — it doesn’t matter. There’s a challenge right now with staffing. It’s been going on really since 2020. A lot of people left the industry and getting more people to apply has been hard for all of us,” Mark Techmeyer, director of Public Affairs with JCSO.
He says the sheriff’s office has just around 800 deputies when the agency is fully staffed.
“Right now, we’re about 94% staffing for the department overall. We have about 35 openings in our sworn positions. That’s deputies that work in our detention facilities in the jail and deputies in patrol and also in professional staff,” said Techmeyer.
In Douglas County, 21 sworn deputies are needed. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office has seven positions to fill. However, about 70 deputies are in training, recovering from injury or assigned alternative duties, meaning they are not serving in their full-time operational role.