by Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble
posted July 31, 2008
Dear Finance Committee:
I am in receipt of your memo dated, July 28, 2008, in which you request a copy of the BCSO fuel conservation policy, our fuel reduction goals and monthly reports detailing how we are meeting these goals for you to review and discuss at county commission meetings.
Included herein is a copy of my on-going fuel savings initiatives. Many of these initiatives were implemented when I first became sheriff in September of 2006. These policies are already public record, having been previously published and reported on in the Chattanooga media market. They have also been available at the BCSO web site (http://bradleysheriff.com). Since these initiatives have been in place for some time and are already a matter of public record, the target date you set for implementing them (August 15, 2008) is invalid and irrelevant.
However, I am publicly re-releasing this information again for the benefit of all Bradley County citizens so they will more completely understand the mission of the BCSO and how our policies and practices are necessary to support that mission. I have always believed that open government is the best government and have operated the BCSO accordingly.
It is the mission of the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office to provide honest, fair and professional law enforcement services to the citizens of Bradley County, while managing resources effectively to prevent and reduce crime. In keeping with this mission, the BCSO limits take-home vehicles to personnel who live in Bradley County and are required to respond to emergencies while off-duty. In addition, I have reduced the BCSO in-use fleet size by 22 vehicles since I took office. Statistically, the size of the current BCSO fleet is in line with other law enforcement agencies of similar size, mission and responsibility.
It is BCSO policy to restrict deputies’ use of official vehicles to official business. Some limited personal use is allowed, but only if that personal use is directly incidental to a deputy’s employment responsibilities. For example, if a deputy needs to mail a letter while on duty, they may do so as long as the stop they make is reasonably located along a route or in the patrol zone, they are assigned.
The drive-home policy is not for the benefit of the employee ~ it is for the benefit and safety of the citizens of Bradley County. Incidentally, the IRS does not consider take-home emergency vehicles that are restricted in the manner I have described as personal income or a benefit to the employee.
As sheriff of Bradley County, I am constitutionally and statutorily responsible for the safety and well-being of a growing population of approximately 100,000 citizens in a 333 square mile area. BCSO deputies are charged with investigating crime, apprehending criminals, operating a 408-bed jail, protecting 13 different courts in three separate locations, serving warrants, patrolling the roads, preventing and deterring crime, responding to calls and being prepared to handle a host of other emergencies and/or disasters, whether man-made or natural. Unfortunately, crime and mishap don’t punch a clock or keep regular hours. Law enforcement and emergency personal must be on the job 24/7, 365 days a year, without exception.
Take-home vehicles are necessary to the performance of our duties and essential to public safety and fulfilling the increasing demands of a growing population. The BCSO take-home program saves lives, preserves resources and is sound public policy for any number of other reasons.
For instance, if the take-home policy were reduced or eliminated, many BCSO cruisers would have to be parked in a centralized location. This places most of the fleet and valuable equipment in a position of vulnerability in the event of vandalism, sabotage, destruction or natural disaster. A simple explosive device placed at the centralized location or a tornado could easily eliminate our ability to respond to emergencies and would offer looters and other criminal types free rein to engage in criminal activity and restrict the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.
Eliminating or reducing take-home vehicles would also marginalize law enforcement visibility in communities throughout the county. By decreasing this valuable deterrent factor, criminals would be more emboldened to sell narcotics, commit burglaries, steal property, harm people and engage in vandalism. Losing that law enforcement visibility throughout the county and in our neighborhoods would significantly inhibit our community policing efforts.
Eliminating or further restricting the take-home vehicles will unduly hamper, delay, reduce and/or eliminate many emergency responses I consider necessary, likely and reasonably predictable. Ideally, a law enforcement agency maintains the number of employees on duty to handle the normal routine and flow of operations, such as established work hours and the on-going number of calls for service (we had 112,000 calls for service in Bradley County last year). I say “ideally” because the BCSO is operating and has been operating at minimum levels in terms of manpower and equipment for many years. But we know our normal routine and flow of operations. If something happens outside that normal routine it requires a concentrated and extra law enforcement response above and beyond the normal routine workload. Additional resources must be immediately called in to handle the major emergency while continuing to respond to the normal workload, which does not stop, for the duration of the major emergency requiring more manpower, equipment and vehicles.
Some examples of emergencies that fall outside the normal routine would be a tornado or a series of tornadoes moving across the county creating extensive damage and injury. A major emergency could be a lost child or missing person whose safety is dependent on a quick and immediate response over a wide area. Both of these type situations have happened recently in Bradley County resulting in call-outs of additional personnel. A major emergency could be an active shooter situation at a school, church, local factory, courthouse or mall, as is occurring more often in many areas across the country and for which we are not immune. It could be a hostage/barricade situation, a bomb or explosion incident, an escaped convict or fleeing felon hiding in the woods, a major accident in the I-75 fog zone, a chemical leak at a local plant, a train derailment with a chemical spill, or the immediate evacuation of 5,000 Bradley County residents who reside within the ten mile evacuation zone due to a nuclear incident at Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant.
If any of these, or any number of other emergency situations take place, it will require immediate off-duty deputies and resources responding directly to the scene, staging area, Emergency Operation Center or the incident(s) command center. To delay that response by forcing emergency responders to drive their personal vehicles with the normal flow of traffic to a centralized fleet location, be assigned an emergency vehicle, and then respond to the location of the emergency will, without a doubt, create enough of a delay to seriously jeopardize innocent life. This is simply not reasonable when the public safety is at stake. It is unacceptable to me and I hope it is unacceptable to you.
Having a number of patrol cars spread throughout the county ready to respond anywhere they may be needed at a moment’s notice in any variety of emergencies is invaluable. It is responsible emergency management and planning. Best of all, that system is already in place and has been for some time. To eliminate or further reduce drive-home vehicles will be taking a step backwards in emergency preparedness and planning.
While I agree it is important and practical to conserve fuel where possible, it is imprudent and impractical to lose sight of the bigger picture and the primary role of government, which is to protect the public. When the unexpected happens or when lives are hanging in the balance, we must be properly prepared to meet the emergency with decisiveness and haste.
The extra cost, if any, for take-home vehicles is negligible. In fact, studies show over and over again that agencies with take-home vehicle policies actually extend the life of their fleet over the long term due to better maintenance and vehicle care and in many cases it is shorter distance for an employee to drive home at the end of his shift than to return a car to a central garage. Additionally, deputies going to and from home at shift change are visible deterrents to crime, and enhance public safety ready to respond to emergencies right then. This happens very often and provides our county a great service.
If there are times when a take-home policy does costs us a few more dollars in fuel, I know this cost is far outweighed by the savings to lives and property that results in having that deputy readily available and prepared. There are many areas of local government that can sustain funding cuts much more easily than public safety, which is already struggling to keep pace with explosive county growth. Keeping pace with this growth on the existing budget will be made even more difficult, but no less important with the recent announcements by Whirlpool and Volkswagen.
Let me also address our SRO program. Recently, some well-meaning folks have approached me about eliminating take-home vehicles for school resource officers. This is not wise public policy for many of the same reasons I had stated above. It is also not wise because the visibility of a patrol car at or near a school is a great deterrent factor to those who may be considering coming onto campus to push drugs, kidnap children, shoot firearms, or otherwise engage in criminal activity. Without vehicles, SROs would not be able to respond and properly assist with traffic control and issues in and around school zones, which reduces accidents and helps save lives. There are countless examples of officers assigned to schools with vehicles that have responded to problems in and around the campus to apprehend criminals and prevent problems from coming onto the campus.
If a child is seriously injured or hurt, the SRO has other communications and emergency equipment available to him in the patrol car to assist. If the situation is so bad such as a series of tornadoes touching down and reeking havoc over a wide spread area it is entirely possible that all 10 or 11 Bradley County EMS ambulance units would be tied up with other serious injuries and EMS personnel would not be readily available. If this happened, and it could, the SRO, trained in basic first aid and CPR, has the option of loading the child and transporting him/her to the emergency room in a fully equipped patrol car with radio, lights and sirens, possibly saving a child’s life.
Just last February tornadoes in Tennessee killed almost 40 people, injuring many more. During this time, strong storm cells capable of producing tornadoes at any moment were being tracked by radar across three swaths in Bradley County just as schools were beginning to take in students for the day. I was able to directly deploy all our SROs with blue lights and sirens directly to the schools earlier than normal with emergency instructions to get everyone arriving at the schools directly to tornado shelters. Had we not had these patrol units available or had to first respond in private vehicles to a central location to get the patrol vehicles and tornadoes had touched down without getting word to schools and children into shelters, the consequences would have been tragic.
Additionally, when schools are not in session, the SROs are fully integrated into other duties and responsibilities helping to reduce backlogs in warrants, investigate crime, protect the courts, serve papers and patrol the streets, by filling in areas where we constantly operate shorthanded. When schools are in session and a potential problem develops at one school, BCSO administrators can quickly shift SRO resources from other schools to the problem area and still maintain a level of vital services in other areas.
The following is a listing of ongoing fuel savings initiatives of the BCSO that we practice everyday.
The BCSO utilizes low-octane (87) gas in all vehicles not requiring diesel fuel or higher octane as recommended by the manufacturer. Keep in mind that our fleet management personnel have documented evidence to show where our higher mileage cars run more efficiently and save money by using the mid-grade octane gasoline. With the number of high mileage vehicles the BCSO continues to operate it remains to be seen if the practice of utilizing the lower octane gasoline for all vehicles will actually save any money. The best policy would be for the commission to fund enough cars to retire all patrol cars that have reached 150,000 road miles to maximize fuel efficiency and not jeopardize our emergency response or deputy safety. This is the practice of most all other police agencies across the country and will save taxpayer money in reduced fuel consumption and maintenance costs. This is the responsibility of the county commission. Do not blame the BCSO for increased fuel usage because we are forced to drive high-mileage, less fuel-efficient vehicles that most law enforcement agencies are not forced to drive.
The BCSO will continue its long-standing practice of turning off engines when the vehicle and emergency equipment such as blue lights and police radio are not in use.
The BCSO will continue to change air filters regularly, keep tires inflated to the optimum level and perform routine and preventive maintenance on all vehicles to enhance fuel efficiency and save fuel costs.
The BCSO has already purchased approximately 19 vehicles with six-cylinder engines and will continue to purchase six-cylinder engines when practical for all regular-use vehicles to enhance fuel performance and gas mileage. Again, the commission can enhance this fuel saving measure by funding enough cars to retire those with 150,000-plus miles. We are still utilizing 19 vehicles with at least 250,000 or more miles.
The BCSO will continue to encourage the county commission to help us eliminate all high-mileage, less fuel-efficient vehicles from our fleet in favor of newer, more fuel-efficient models that save gas in the long run and provide an enhanced level of safety to our employees. Hybrid vehicles will be considered for some uses in the future when price is competitive with current fleet vehicle prices available on the state contract.
The BCSO has already reduced its usable fleet by 22 vehicles since I took office and will continue to maintain only the minimum number of vehicles necessary to meet statutory obligations, emergency response obligations and general public safety needs. In my view we are at that level and this is consistent with Department of Justice statistics for a sheriff’s office of our size and responsibility. As the county continues to grow, and it will, additional vehicles will need to be added to this fleet size to meet public safety and statutory obligations.
The BCSO will continue to limit take-home vehicles to personnel who reside in Bradley County and are required to respond at times while off-duty to BCSO law enforcement related duties/emergencies. Take home vehicles are also necessary for proper implementation of the Bradley County All-Hazard Emergency Response Plans maintained through the Bradley County Emergency Management Agency as required by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency/Department of Homeland Security.
The BCSO will continue to file reports from the field when possible using mobile data transmissions saving gas to/from the Justice Center and will take telephone reports when possible for minor offenses when the actual presence of an officer is not requested. Additional funding from the commission for mobile data terminals will help further reduce fuel use.
The BCSO will continue to utilize employee car pooling when possible to/from required training assignments both in-county and out-of-county.
The BCSO will continue to limit out-of-town travel to accomplish only statutory responsibilities and obtain the necessary and required training to meet federal, state and local guidelines and professional standards.
The BCSO will continue to encourage the county commission to fund the installation of larger and multiple fuel storage tanks to take advantage of available price reductions when making bulk gasoline purchases and be able to use different types of gasoline or ethanol for best pricing options and vehicle use.
The BCSO will continue to maintain at least two patrol units assigned to each zone to maintain the current level of services and emergency response times while reducing the mileage distance a deputy is required to travel when answering calls for service. This policy saves gasoline and enhances public safety and deputy safety.
The BCSO will maintain the policy of deputies driving the speed limit unless answering dispatched emergency calls or conducting duties requiring an expedited law enforcement response to enhance officer or public safety.
The BCSO will continue to encourage deputies when not answering calls or conducting other required BCSO statutory obligations and public safety duties to park their vehicles in high visibility and call-for-service areas to help save gas.
The BCSO will continue to utilize 12-hour patrol shifts and 10-hour CID shifts, which saves fuel use. This shift alignment reduces shift changes from three to two during a 24-hour period for patrol reducing daily home to work driving and keeps detectives on duty longer during any given day, resulting in fewer call outs and one day less per week commute for each detective, saving gas.
With the recent announcements by Whirlpool and Volkswagen, we can reasonably expect growth in our area to continue. Over the last two years, the BCSO has made great strides in service to this community. For instance, I have put more patrols out on the streets to deter more crime and catch more criminals. This increase in patrols was long overdue and has resulted in the use of more gasoline, but, there had not been any increase in patrols at the BCSO for over ten years and it had to be done to keep pace with the growth and enhance officer and public safety.
This strategy is without a doubt working because we made a record number of arrests last year and reduced thefts and burglaries county-wide by 25 percent. We have reduced our average emergency response time by over two minutes to 7 minutes 30 seconds and this has saved lives. Drug arrests are up and our detectives are solving crime at a rate 17 percent above the national average. Our Corrections Division is consistently housing and transporting record averages of inmates and the BCSO is protecting a record number of court proceedings and serving a record number of civil and criminal process and orders issued by the courts.
Within the last year, three nationally recognized criminal justice experts have stated on record to the court that the BCSO is a well-managed and well-run organization that is efficient in its use of resources. The record shows that in the last two years alone the BCSO returned over $600,000 in unspent budgeted money to the taxpayers, further demonstrating our good management of resources. Our efforts regularly bring in over $4 million dollars a year to the county coffers. Recently, the BCSO brought in an extra $70,000 by housing Polk County inmates, saved $10,000 by renegotiating our food contract in the jail and when we renewed our contract for the inmate phone system, we brought a higher rate of return to the county and a $50,000 signing bonus. This signing bonus can be used to purchase two extra fuel efficient vehicles at no cost to the taxpayers.
All of these accomplishments are documented, but rarely reported on in the local media. The proposed cuts the county commission is advocating will reduce needed services, risk citizens’ safety and reduce needed county revenues that these services produce.
As I have demonstrated, the BCSO is not wasting gasoline. Two deputies covering zones larger than the entire city of Cleveland and each zone being similar in population to the entire city is not too many patrol cars on the road, it is actually too few. Having detectives out investigating crime and responding after hours to bring criminals to justice is not a waste of taxpayer resources, but an investment in a better future for all of us. Having well-equipped and prepared SROs protecting our community and school children in Bradley County is not a waste of gasoline, but a necessary expenditure in the fight against crime and violence. Having deputies out serving warrants, arresting fugitives and protecting courts is a statutory responsibility and protects our entire community. Having deputies out working inmates to keep our community clean and doing work for schools and churches saves much more money than it costs.
Gasoline prices are up and so is our usage, but as I have shown, all the use is necessary and long overdue for county law enforcement in a growing community. Without newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, that only the commission can fund, do not expect our usage to decline. Over the next few years the BCSO will remain vigilant for new ideas and technology that may become available to help save fuel without cutting services. I am all for alternative fuels and “green” technology and will utilize these options when practical, available and cost effective to do so. In the meantime, the BCSO will continue to do the excellent job we have always done by proudly, effectively and efficiently protecting and serving all citizens. We will not abandon the streets and jeopardize the safety of families to save a few gallons in gasoline.
I want to be very clear: I will not cut patrols, I will not further reduce our usable fleet and I will not abandon the take-home car policy for emergency responders. The Finance Committee may be willing to raise the white flag of surrender and turn the streets of Bradley County over to criminals and make us less prepared to protect the public in order to save a little gasoline, but I will not.
Further, the Finance Committee already has a monthly record of what the BCSO spends for gasoline along with accompanying invoices. The county mayor’s office fills out the check and sends it to Collins Oil every month. I will not further detract from my primary responsibility of protecting the public in order to duplicate unnecessary reports just so the Finance Committee can continue to grandstand, posture, threaten and belittle the efforts of the BCSO at county commission meetings.
It’s time that county government showed some political courage and vision instead of engaging in obvious, politically-motivated antics for the public. Gas prices are up and our county is growing and that has created increased fuel requirements to cover increased service calls, regular patrols and other responsibilities.
For the last three years, the BCSO has covered the increased gasoline use in our own budget, even when the commission decreased our gas budget by almost $3,000. The BCSO, by the testimony of the county’s own hired experts, is a well-run and well-managed organization. If you didn’t want the opinion of experts, you shouldn’t have wasted tax payer dollars putting their sworn testimony in the official record.
Step up on behalf of the citizens you were elected to serve and stop constantly trying to undermine my work and, even worse, undermine the safety of our citizens. “There is a time and place for subtlety, but this is not one of them.”
Sincerely,
Tim Gobble
Sheriff
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