The continual need to cut dollars from our budget has forced the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office to make some very difficult decisions these past couple of years. We have had to examine every program and every dime spent. In these times, public safety is the most critical issue. We work diligently to uphold our core mission; the efficient and secure operations of the Oakland County jail and our court system, and providing critical law enforcement services to the over 1.2 million residents of Oakland County. In addition to providing comprehensive law enforcement services to the entire county – ranging from a Forensic Science Laboratory to a Computer Crimes Unit to a Jail and Corrections System housing over 1,500 inmates to a Fire Investigations Unit and more – the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is the sole provider of patrol and law enforcement services for over 275,000 of those residents through law enforcement contracts in 14 different communities as well as the Oakland County Parks. The Sheriff’s Office is the local police department for these 14 communities and almost 1 in 4 residents of Oakland County have the Sheriff’s Office as their local police department as a result of these contractual relationships.
Instituting new ways of operating without having to lay off our employees has been a goal of mine. But our challenges have been great, so in order to meet our budget cuts, we have been faced with eliminating 121 positions by October, 2011. So far, because of forward planning and three year budgeting, we have eliminated 83 positions with no lay offs. Unfortunately, we are projected to layoff 19 deputies in October and possibly more in January. We are doing everything we can to keep our manpower hours in line by implementing new technologies like video visitation and arraignment for our inmate population, and a GPS tether program for our low level offenders. Doing more with less, employing new cost saving technologies are long term solutions for a problem that is not going away anytime soon.
We as an office were able to introduce a new service to our citizens last year, Operation Medicine Cabinet™ (OMC). We were fortunate to have private and corporate donors willing to underwrite the cost of our outstanding new program which is beneficial to a cross section of our community. Operation Medicine Cabinet™, a new prescription drug take back program, not only helps gets prescription drugs out of the hands of unauthorized users, but also helps keeps controlled substances out of our water and fish supply. OMC is helping to protect our kids, protect our seniors, and protect our environment, and it was recently recognized by the National Association of Counties (NACO) as an innovative program.
As always, I am at your service. Please feel free to contact the Sheriff’s Office with suggestions or comments.
Sincerely,
Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard
About Tom and Ann Gendich