Sheriff gives first year progress report

EPHRATA - Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones says he's spent the past year trying to make good on the many promises he made in 2010.

Following a long, sometimes contentious campaign, Jones beat former sheriff Frank DeTrolio in the 2010 election and stepped into the role amidst what he characterized at the time as a "rampant" crime problem that wasn't being adequately addressed due to a lack of foresight by his predecessor.

"I promise to take a proactive approach to the problems of lack of accountability, absolute consistency, open and clear communication, an organization focused on service as well as fervently addressing crime," Jones wrote in an editorial published in the Columbia Basin Herald prior to the election.

Open communication was a cornerstone of Jones' campaign, and it's a challenge he says he's continued to focus on since.

"I've made that a priority from day one, making sure that folks out there in the communities are well informed," he said; adding there have been a "huge increase" in the number of calls reporting suspicious activity. "It started out to be a challenge to get that information out to the communities and the citizens, but it's actually come back ten-fold to help us out in the end."

Jones began his term holding town hall meetings and said he's in the process of scheduling more over the coming months, beginning with north county communities. He also instituted a crime tips email address, which he said is checked on a regular basis, with messages forwarded to the appropriate division for a quick follow-up.

Jones also promised to replace what he saw as reactive law enforcement with a more proactive approach, which he says helped lead to lower crime rates last year over 2010.

He pointed to metal thefts, which he said have lessened thanks to partnerships with area recycling centers, as well as an effort to enlist the help of farmers and other rural residents.

"The sheriff's office can't do it alone," he said. "That's why I'm so big on getting the community involved and getting eyes and ears out there and making every resource available for them to be able to get a hold of us to report stuff."

While official crime statistics aren't yet available, local call logs reveal most non-violent crimes are on the decline, including forced entry residential burglaries, which declined 32 percent from 2010, and auto thefts, which were down 19 percent.

Most violent crimes were also down in 2011, Jones said, including a 13.9 percent decrease in assaults, a 42 percent drop in strong-arm robbery and a 56 percent decline in weapons offenses.

Assaults with firearms meanwhile increased 125 percent while most sex offenses, including forcible rape, stayed flat.

To help deal with curbing gang activity, Jones signed the sheriff's office with a regional gang task force and formed an internal gang unit consisting of two deputies who take part in special patrols several times a month.

He believes gang activity in Grant County is subsiding.

"We have our occasional incidents down south but I think we're doing a good job with the resources we have to curb some of this activity," he said.

Fatality collisions declined 43 percent last year from 2010, which Jones credited to dedicated traffic and patrol officers.

"We always get the comment about 'Don't you have more dangerous criminals to catch?' But you know people who run stop signs and get involved in collisions end up sometimes killing people, so to me that's a big priority," he said.

One of Jones' pledges, to "lead from the front" by participating in patrols, has suffered under the strains of his position, he said.

"I'll tell you right now I'm all about going out and working side-by-side with my guys, I'm not afraid to do that," he said. "But obviously this past year, I'm not going out as much as I'd like. I try to get out a few times a month."

Another cornerstone of the 2010 election campaign was dealing with overcrowding at the jail. On a number of occasions Jones said he'd even be willing to move toward tent jails if necessary.

"I will aggressively explore every option to help relieve overcrowding and the unsafe working environment in our jails," he said during a candidate forum. "If tents are good enough for our military, they're good enough for our inmates."

But although Jones said there are on average about 30 fewer bodies in the jail on any given day than in 2010, the facility is still bursting at the seems, something the sheriff said he needs more funding to adequately deal with.

"I would still be interested in doing tent jails, but it's just one of those things where hopefully in the next couple of years the county will be in better financial shape to consider assisting the sheriff's office with," he said. "To sit here and promise we'll have funding in a year or two to build something, I obviously can't promise that, just know we're very diligent about seeking funding."

Meanwhile, the sheriff has instigated a 23-and-1 system at the jail - inmates are only allowed out of their cells for an hour a day in shifts - a move that has reportedly reduced inmate discipline incidents by about 29 percent.

The sheriff's office budget will remain flat this year, Jones said it's much preferable to his first year in office, when the county cut funding by roughly $500,000.

"We really had to tighten our belts," he said. "I truly believe we provided the same great service as we could have with the $500,000. We basically took that away from some equipment we could have purchased versus losing personnel."

This year's lack of extra funding means Jones' request for two additional corrections personnel and another major crime unit detective will go unheeded, but he's confident his roughly 115 personnel can make do with what they have.

"We've made a lot of promotions in this office (over the past year)," he said, reflecting on the nine people promoted in the patrol and corrections divisions.

He doesn't expect to have to make any major cuts in service this coming year, such as the Spokane County Sheriff's Office did last year when they reduced property crimes investigations.

"Investigating crimes is important and without that personal contact with the victim it's hard to feel their frustration over the phone," Jones said. "Our folks better be investigating these crimes such as burglary like it's their own grandmother."

Jones said his proudest accomplishment last year was instituting a list of core values for the agency - professionalism, integrity and accountability.

"I think that was so important for the administration and agency as a whole," he said. "To have some kind of direction on where the office wants to go."

Part of that direction relates to an item on his pledge list that was put aside last year, namely getting accredited by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs in order to bring more accountability to the agency. It's something Jones said he's put at the top of his agenda to be accomplished before the end of 2012.

Part of that entails adoption of a new policy and procedures manual called Lexipol. The company website calls itself "America's leading provider of risk management resources for public safety organizations" that offers state-specific policy manuals integrated with scenario-based daily training bulletins on high-risk, low-frequency events.

Transitioning to the new policy manual will go a long way toward accreditation, Jones said.

"Any way that I can limit liability for the agency, I think it's a good thing, and being accredited will do that," he said.

Jones said he plans to focus on promoting the agency's vision statement in 2012, reading from a framed copy hanging on his office wall.

"To provide a consistent, cohesive organization based on communication, education, accountability and loyalty to ourselves and our community," he said. "Not that we're not already cohesive but I want to make sure we're really cohesive and that we're really interacting with our community."