How to crack down on CRIME in Coos County
There are many, many ways our county can crack down on crime and I will walk through a few areas to focus on. But the first thing our leaders need to do is accept the fact that the majority of voters do not support a tax increase. Once they acknowledge that fact, they will be able to redirect focus, time, and energy to a solution that actually has a chance to work.
Second, our leaders need to prioritize funding to law enforcement departments FIRST so that they receive financial support necessary to fully open the jail (we are currently at 2 out of 5 pods open) and hire enough deputy district attorneys to effectively prosecute all of the crime in the county (we are currently at 7 out of the necessary 12-16 prosecutors). Our leaders need to change county code to set minimum standards for law enforcement (i.e. 200 jail beds, 12 prosecutors) and make it illegal for the county to fund the departments below those standards. With the jail fully reopened and enough prosecutors to handle the case load, we will start to see less case dismissals, less plea deals, and longer jail sentences. This article from a local newspaper in 2009 details how a reduced jail capacity results in criminals receiving significantly reduced accountability and time behind bars.
“If we sentence someone to a year, and if the jail is full, they could walk in 10 days... That doesn’t send a message to anyone. We work hard not to just fill the jail.”
Noteworthy is the fact that my opponent, Commissioner Bob Main, has been in office since that article was written 15 years ago and he has not been part of any effort that has been successful in reopening the jail in almost 2 decades. He talks about not cutting funding for the jail in the article, however he has indicated that if they are unable to increase property taxes, this summer they will vote for major cuts to law enforcement (20+ sheriffs deputies).
“I’m not happy with the 97-bed cap, I don’t like turning people loose when they should be incarcerated. The most important thing for society is protection. That would be the last thing I would cut.”
Third, we need to focus on ways to increase resources for extraditions and probation violations. If someone is contacted by law enforcement in our county who has active warrants from another jurisdiction they need to be extradited out of the county as soon as possible so they are not causing problems in our neighborhoods. The same applies for those violating their probation agreements — we need swift and firm consequences for repeat offenders and those unwilling to follow the terms of their release from jail.
Fourth, all Failure to Appear warrants need to result in the violator being housed in jail until they see a judge. No more book and release on a Failure to Appear warrant.
Fifth, we need to have a zero tolerance policy for petty crimes like littering and trespassing which are currently being almost entirely ignored by law enforcement. It is called the Broken Windows Theory and it has been proven to be effective however it would require the jail to be open to full capacity so that judges could feel comfortable handing out light jail sentences without overwhelming the system.
Lastly, there are other ways to help with the crime crisis such as an increased investment in the narcotics investigation team, and a renewed recruitment effort for the Sheriff Reserve Officer program, but we need to first focus on prioritizing existing funding to get the jail and prosecution teams up to a reasonable level.