Orange County Sheriff’s Department Short $88 Million
August 21, 2009
Over the next 2 years, the Orange County Sheriff’s department is said to be short $88 million with regards to their budget. Their plan? Replace deputies in the Orange County Jail with civilians. Supposedly this will save them $10 million per year. Other creative cost-saving techniques are being explored by Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.
The idea is to slowly transfer the current deputies out to patrol the city and slowly train and hire civilians to take there place. Ultimately there will be a deputy or sergeant that oversees the civilian workers. This strategy is already been in place in many other cities including Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Newport Beach. This movement of the current deputies will allow them to keep their jobs as they will end up patrolling the city when a civilian becomes capable (trained) to take their place. The first civilians are set to arrive for duty by January 2010.
