Clayton sheriff: 75 new deputies needed

Clayton County Sheriff Kem Kimbrough said he needs at least 75 more deputies to serve a backlog of warrants and adequately secure the jail and courthouse.

“We’re in a bad situation,” said Kimbrough, who took over as sheriff Jan. 1.

Starting next week, all administrative staff will put on their uniforms and hit the streets once a week to help serve warrants and civil papers. This includes everyone from sergeants up to the sheriff himself.

“It’s all about presence and adding strength to the streets,” Kimbrough said Tuesday. “The people who work in the office are still police officers.”

The staffing request comes as the new sheriff prepares for an audit by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime information center at the end of this month. The GBI will ensure the department is serving warrants and following procedures.

“We’re dusting off procedures and making sure we’re up to snuff,” Kimbrough said. “But we need staff across the board.”

That need, however, would likely come with a big price tag.

Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said it would cost “several million dollars” to hire 75 deputies. That includes benefits, uniforms, weapons, training and vehicles.

Still, Kimbrough says the additional deputies are a must. He took office with more than 20,000 warrants — more than most sheriff’s departments, he said. That number as of Feb. 10 had decreased to 15,979.

“As quick as we get them out, we get more in,” Kimbrough said.

FBI records show Clayton County ranks sixth in Georgia for the most outstanding felony and serious misdemeanor warrants.

As of Jan. 27, there were 266,067 warrants for felonies and serious misdemeanors in Georgia, according to the FBI.

DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and Richmond counties all have more unserved warrants than Clayton.

Terry Norris, vice president of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association, said every sheriff’s department in the country has a backlog of warrants.

“You really are never going to get all of the warrants served. All the sheriffs in this country have gotten to the point where you have to serve the most dangerous offenders first,” Norris said. “But it’s got to very daunting to walk in the door and find that many warrants waiting for you.”

Kimbrough says he doesn’t have enough deputies to serve the warrants nor enough room to house the suspects.

The department has divided the county into eight zones with one deputy responsible for serving warrants in that area per shift. The sheriff is asking for another 28 deputies to help serve warrants.

“To send a single-man unit to serve a warrant to a potentially dangerous criminal is not safe,” Kimbrough said. “He’s knocking on the door and the suspect could be running out the back door with a gun.”

Despite the shortages, Kimbrough said his deputies have been so successful serving warrants that jail beds are filling up faster than the court can process the suspects.

Earlier this month, Kimbrough closed one of the seven housing units in the jail because he said there weren’t enough deputies to monitor inmates. Minimum security inmates are now triple-bunked.

“It is not ideal, but it’s safe and allows us to save on staff and overtime,” he said.

Another 32 deputies are needed to adequately secure the jail without using overtime, Kimbrough said.

“We have some people working twice as many hours because of the shortages,” he said.

Having adequate staffing is necessary, Norris said, because “a jail is the highest liability a sheriff has to deal with. If you don’t have the minimum number of staff, you put your staff in danger, as well as the inmates.”

To help with the shortages, Kimbrough also has suspended the community relations division and the sheriff’s Clean Community Initiative Program, in which deputies oversaw inmates cleaning trash on the street.

Kimbrough said Clayton is fortunate that no major incidents have occurred in the jail.

The courthouse also is understaffed, with only one deputy securing each judge, Kimbrough said.

The sheriff is requesting 40 more patrol cars to replace those with more than 150,000 miles and for the new deputies.

Kimbrough’s request for more deputies comes as the county commission is scrutinizing spending and mulling possible staff cuts. Bell said it’s early in the budget process, but he expects little room for additions.

“He needs prayer,” Bell chuckled when told about the 75 deputies. “It won’t happen without a tax increase.”

The sheriff’s department, which has about 135 sworn deputies and 105 corrections officers, has not seen a staffing increase since the 1990s when the population was almost half what it is today, Kimbrough said.

“This has gone on for so long that people just accept it,” he said. “I don’t accept it.”