UPDATE: Scott County Sheriff’s Office May Force Decision to Assign School Resource Deputies Back to Patrol

Poor pay being offered to Scott County Deputies

UPDATE: 

Scott County Sheriff Jerry Goodin says he needs more money to pay deputies and fund school resource officers. But the county council unanimously rejected his request.

The Sheriff spoke to councilmembers Tuesday evening. He said his department has some of the lowest salaries in the state, leading to a staff shortage. The shortage is so bad, he said, he may have to pull SROs from schools so he has enough deputies on the streets.

When Goodin was called up to the Council's table, Councilman J.R. Ward said he was going first. He proceeded to read a statement on behalf of the Council, explaining why they were rejecting the funding request.

Ward started with addressing the economic reality for the county.

"We all started this budget process with about $1.9 million in the red," said Ward.

The councilman said county population growth is slow, health insurance costs are high, and they've had to take a look at cuts in many county departments. Then, he turned to address Goodin's staffing issue.

"When Sheriff Goodin took office, he walked into a fully-staffed, fully-funded, police department," Ward said. "Since then, 22 police employees have left for one reason or another. And I can tell you this, this was not all due to pay nor did they leave for higher positions."

"Every single person that we've lost at the sheriff's office, that we didn't want to lose, OK, they left because of higher paid, better jobs," said Goodin. 

Twelve minutes after Goodin began pleading his case, a councilman cut him off to call for a vote. After chants of "let him speak" from the audience, the six members of the Scott County Council made a unanimous decision to not give raises to deputies.

"I have been defunded," Goodin said. "They have cut my budget."

The Council president said their proposed budget does fully fund the county-paid portion for SROs. While they are considering raises for county workers, they are smaller than the sheriff said is needed.

Scott County- On October 5th, Scott County Sheriff Jerry Goodin, after thoroughly reviewing all manning options, was forced to consider reassigning all Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officer (SRO) Deputies from positions at Vienna-Finley Elementary, Lexington Elementary, and Johnson Elementary back to patrol duty. This decision was painstakingly considered after exhausting several months of negotiating with the Scott County Council about the poor pay being offered to Scott County Deputies, who have been steadily leaving the department for other law enforcement positions over the last year for better pay and benefits, citing pay increases averaging $15,000 to $25,000 annually. The most recent alleged pay proposal offered by the council makes no positive effect on the issue that Scott County Deputies are one of the lowest-paid law enforcement officers in southern Indiana, possibly in the entire State of Indiana, leaving the Sheriff in an impossible position of protecting the community with the smaller number of deputies who remain. Attempts to recruit new deputies have met with no newly hired personnel, where the Sheriff’s Office is competing with these same law enforcement agencies that are paying competitive wages to their personnel that some of the Scott County Elected Officials are not willing to do. The bottom line is this…when deputies leave and there are no new hires to replace them, a force management plan must be conducted, and hard decisions must be made…this is one of those hard decisions.

The frustrating part is this…the Sheriff of Scott County presented a budget, at the council's request, that would enact the needed pay increases for deputies which in turn would make the compensation package competitive to retain our personnel while also attracting new recruits. The proposed budget not only covered the projected pay increase, but it was also finalized while actually DECREASING the Sheriff’s annual budget. Furthermore, the budget proposed by the Sheriff was also reviewed and approved by Bakertilly, the County's Budget Auditors, who advised it was a sustainable budget for years to come. The pay increase would place Scott County Deputies in the “middle of the pack” for officer pay of other local law enforcement agencies surrounding Scott County, by no means making them the highest paid, yet would make the compensation package competitive with the other agencies. The alleged minimal pay proposal offered by the County Council places the pay of Scott County Deputies even further behind the other local departments, who are expected to receive additional pay increases for 2024, keeping Scott County Sheriff’s Deputies as one of the lowest-paid law enforcement officers in Southern Indiana. This will assuredly result in deputies continuing to leave for better pay and no new recruits considering a law enforcement career with the Scott County Sheriff’s Office.

The reassignment of the School Resource Officer Deputies is NOT the first step taken by Sheriff Goodin to counter the manning crisis at the Sheriff’s Office. The first act was to not fill the open detective positions that exist in the department, all of which would require the reassignment of a deputy from patrol duty to the detective division. The detective division has been reduced to one (1) deputy on a temporary duty basis investigating crime while also being scheduled to work patrol when required by a schedule manning shortfall. Secondly, grant positions that paid for two (2) deputies had to be returned to the grantees based on the inability of the Sheriff to fill these positions and his steadfast dedication to keeping the School Resource Deputies within each school. Each grant required a deputy to be assigned against the position, again forcing the Sheriff to move a deputy from patrol, which was not an option. Additionally, the Sheriff’s Office is already assigning “single coverage shifts” to deputies, where one (1) deputy is covering the entire county by themselves. Lastly, the only manpower management option remaining to fill the Constitutional Requirements of the Office of Sheriff is the “heartbreaking reassignment” of the three (3) School Resource Officers back to patrol duty, as the number of available deputies continues to fall. Furthermore, the ability to have deputies available to answer calls for service on a 24-hour basis will also be considered…another may be “What hours will the Sheriff’s Office have deputies working that can respond to a call?”. These are just examples of the many decisions that must be made. Sheriff Goodin advised the following… “The decision to possibly remove Scott County Deputies from our schools is truly a tough, heartbreaking decision for me to make. I am truly disappointed, that a decision being considered by the Scott County Council to not pay fair wages to Sheriff’s Deputies, based entirely on politics and their hate of me, results in our schools not being protected and our children possibly being placed in harm’s way. There is no excuse they can give that makes their decision justifiable. You will hear many rumors, lies, excuses, and accusations directed at me and why the deputies are leaving the department. Police officers, just like nurses, schoolteachers, and other professional career personnel, are in high demand across the country, not only at the Scott County Sheriff’s Office…the difference is the other police agencies are financially supported by their local elected officials and my deputies are not. You may hear it is the Sheriff’s responsibility to hire and assign personnel, which it is. However, it is the responsibility of the County Council to provide the financial resources required for the sheriff to do so…which they have not done and are not expected to do based on what has been shared with me. My staff worked tirelessly to provide the Scott County Council with everything they requested in open public meetings, where the council voiced their support of the pay raise if my office could meet the proposed budget necessity and the long-term sustainment requirement they set, both stipulations they required. We did exactly what the Council requested we do, and in the end, we are being advised they are not going to vote in favor of supporting your deputies. I feel they intentionally misled not only me but all my employees. They told us what was required…and we provided it all. We provided a budget that supported the pay increases, it was declared sustainable, and it was shockingly less than the amount of the budget we were told we had to work with. They failed to act on the proposal during several public meetings, providing no input or additional requirement of me or my staff for consideration, advising all was in order and nothing further was needed. I was clear to them from the first meeting in August, where I conveyed the situation to them in an open meeting that I have deputies leaving for better pay, that the manning crisis is real, and that I needed their help to “stop the bleeding”. The slap in the face they are expected to deliver undoubtedly shows me and my team that some of the members of the Scott County Council care nothing about the safety and security of our citizens, absolutely nothing!”

NOTE: The pay of the Sheriff (Sheriff Goodin) is set by the state of Indiana…this pay proposal does NOT affect his pay one cent.

Please come out to the Scott County Courthouse and show your support for the deputies, jailers, and employees of the Scott County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, October 10th at 5:30 pm, when the Scott County Council is scheduled to vote on the pay proposal presented to them by Sheriff Goodin.

To the criminal element who may read this release or hear rumors that the Scott County Sheriff’s Office is “out of business”…BEWARE! We will continue to fight crime and protect the citizens of Scott County…we are in a partnership with our citizens, all 23,800.