LOVELOCK - Two candidates vying for county sheriff said deep dissatisfaction with management at the sheriff's office motivated them to enter politics. No matter who wins the race for sheriff, however, both men said they are sticking around to help resolve issues impacting the quality of local law enforcement.
During the Oct. 21 candidate forum sponsored by the local chamber of commerce, Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Jerry Allen and Deputy Nathan Carmichael agreed that leadership, communication, training, office and jail infrastructure are as critical for effective law enforcement as new crime-fighting tools or vehicles.
"We have a tendency to buy new toys instead of getting our old ones fixed," Carmichael said. "I think there's a lot things that are broken at the sheriff's office. My goal is to fix those."
Responsive leadership is a top concern for Allen and the reason for campaigning against his boss Sheriff Richard Machado who was eliminated from the race by voters in the June 10 primary election.
"If you have no leadership at the top, it's hard for your troops to know what they can do, what they can't do, what they're supposed to be doing, what's right, wrong or indifferent," Allen said. "If you're just letting them loose in the county, it's like herding cats trying to get them back under control."
Carmichael said sheriff's office staff and deputies are "years behind on training."
"I will make sure employees are trained before myself," he said. "Victims and the public requiring our assistance deserve the best trained deputies possible. Training will improve services and officer safety."
Allen said direct discussions would help relations between the sheriff's office and county leaders.
"That doesn't mean radio communication, that means between us and the district attorney's office and the county commissioners," Allen said. "Over the last 13 years there has been an increased butting of heads between the agencies. I think we need to get that communication free-flowing and both ways."
Carmichael and Allen seemed to agree that improved leadership and training will boost morale, reduce "freelancing" in the county by sheriff's deputies and reduce employee turnover at the sheriff's office.
"In the 13 years I've been there, we've gone through 30 deputies," Allen said. "It's a detriment to this county. We're constantly re-training people and it doesn't work out for the community."
Carmichael said he'd re-implement inmate work crews and, unlike the Humboldt County sheriff's office, he would not implement civil forfeitures of property unless a felony crime was involved.
Allen said in his experience the Pershing County Sheriff's Office has not been involved in the confiscation of money and one confiscated vehicle was sold back to the subject at a low price.
"I don't want to see this county get into what Humboldt County is into," he said. "The court is supposed to pass judgment upon conviction and give out the penalties - that's not for the sheriff's office. I don't see us getting into a lot of that civil forfeiture stuff unless it's at the order of a court."
Carmichael said his priorities would include resolution of radio and dispatch communications.
"Communication is an issue, however, 99 percent of it is training, not equipment issues," he said. "I think we're broken in every department within that agency except for maybe the secretaries."
According to Allen, a new law enforcement center must include a dispatch office separate from the jail and inmates that interfere with emergency communications. To avoid the cost of purchasing additional real estate, he suggested the existing building be demolished and replaced with dispatch/administration offices next to a modular jail facility at the current sheriff's office location.
"The building itself is creating issues. Last week, I took two trustees in and we patched an 18-inch hole in the concrete," he said. "If an inmate had fallen in and broken an ankle, the county would be liable."
A new jail facility is needed to separate difficult inmates from each other, Allen said.
"If we have more than two people that don't get along, we have to lock the whole facility down," he explained. "If we get people that are confused about their sexuality, we have absolutely no place to put them yet we're required to house them. With the Burning Man event, we have more and more of them."
As for youth issues, Carmichael had a short answer - promote parenting skills and family values.
Allen, a DARE instructor, believes the DARE program should be expanded beyond the elementary school into the middle and high schools to help reduce bullying, drug and alcohol problems. As a former school resource officer, Allen would like to re-establish that position within the school district.
"The schools have asked us to get an officer back in the school not to run it as a police state but just for somebody to be there," Allen said. "Let the students see you as a person and not just the person that's going to come down on them. There are a lot of problems that can be solved by just talking to kids."
Local resident David Skelton commented the next county sheriff will be "walking into a firestorm" due to a deteriorating jail facility, antiquated dispatch equipment and other law enforcement issues.
"We have got a jail that's falling apart and we're not going to get out of that quickly," he said. "The problem with dispatch is not the personnel. We need hardware that's reliable - they (dispatch) have one console and there is no backup. So far, we have been able to get by but that's no longer viable."
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