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Sheriff Coats Announces Cost-Saving Reorganization

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SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT

Published: February 4, 2009

LARGO - Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats has announced a number of steps he hopes will make the Sheriff's Office more frugal.

In announcing the reorganization, Coats said he is attempting to "serve citizens as efficiently as possible given the present and future budget challenges."

Effective immediately the Sheriff's Office will:
• Observe a "zero overtime" policy applied across the agency. The anticipated savings will be $2.5 million in the current, 2009, fiscal year and $3.5 million in fiscal 2010, which begins Oct. 1.

• Suspend the observance of Good Friday, Veterans Day and Martin Luther King Day through the end of fiscal 2012. The estimated savings is $345,000 per holiday. The holidays will be reinstated when it is deemed economically feasible.

• Distribute to patrol deputies digital cameras purchased with federal grant money. Deputies will use the cameras to take photos at crime scenes. This will eliminate the need to send forensic personnel to a crime scene when all they would do is take photos.

In addition, effective Feb. 15, the Sheriff's Court Processing Section, consisting of the Fugitive and Civil Units will be reorganized.

The former Fugitive Unit is being dissolved and the responsibilities of that unit are being assigned to the Patrol Operations Bureau.

The Civil Unit will retain its primary functions of executing civil process, to include evictions, levies, Baker Act commitments, and subpoenas. As a result, 21 deputies will be reassigned to Patrol Operations, which will assist in effectively implementing the zero overtime policy.

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