News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Larry Blanton has fulfilled a lifelong goal by becoming Deschutes County Sheriff. Now the really hard work begins.
Blanton is sheriff of one of the fastest-growing counties in America - with all the challenges that entails. The Sisters area is probably the quietest sector in his county - and Blanton knows he'll have to work to keep it that way.
The new sheriff has no plans for altering the contract his office has to provide police services to the City of Sisters. This year the contract costs the city $393,000.
"I think it's a great partnership," Sheriff Blanton told The Nugget last week.
It works for the city, he said, because "you can't have a police force (of your own) for $393,000. It's expensive business."
Estimates for Sisters to reestablish a municipal police force run into the $1 million range.
The partnership benefits the sheriff's office, too, by augmenting the west county patrol staff.
One of the things citizens miss about having a Sisters police force is knowing all the officers - having a familiar face to deal with. It's an issue Blanton acknowledges.
"We try as best we can to keep a familiar face, the same person, working in the district," he said. "We try. It's never going to be perfect."
Blanton noted that deputies need to be cycled through different patrol districts so they are familiar with the lay of the land.
"If someone has to respond to an incident on Elm Street or Locust Street, they need to know where they are," the sheriff said.
Blanton cited the cracking of a tagging case in Sisters by School Resource Deputy Don Pray as an example of community policing. Pray's intimate familiarity with the community helped him through months of investigation that led to the arrest of several teens.
Blanton's chief concern at the moment is funding construction of an expanded jail to house 738 inmates. For Blanton, the jail is an issue every county resident should be concerned about - including folks in Sisters.
"The jail issue is everybody's issue," he said. "The ability to manage inmate populations is critical to everybody's quality of life, no matter where you live."
The current 238 beds aren't enough to handle growing inmate populations - which means that there's a revolving door attached to the Deschutes County Jail. A thousand inmates were "matrixed out" last year, released from jail based on a matrix that takes into account seriousness of charges.
Not only does that put people back on the street who should be in jail, it inhibits the system's ability to help inmates get back on the straight and narrow. Without the "stick" of jail time hanging over an inmate's head, there's little for them to participate in drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs that hold out the best hope to prevent recidivism.
Blanton estimates that 75 percent of inmates have drug and alcohol problems. Solve that and you have gone a long way toward turning a criminal off the crooked path.
The problem is only growing more acute as methamphetamine creates a scourge of addiction and attendant crime - from burglary and identity theft to child neglect - in Central Oregon. The interagency Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) Team has seized more meth in the first quarter of 2007 than they saw in all of 2006.
The sheriff said his office is currently working on a remodel of the work center to accommodate medium security inmates so that at least some good can be got out of intervention programs.
But real progress on that front will await the $80 million construction of a new jail. Blanton is currently working with the Deschutes County Commissioners to figure out how to fund the project.
"My goal is not to have to go back to the citizens for money for yet more bricks and mortar," he said.
Blanton is not singing the blues about lack of money. In fact, the funding measures passed by voters last year have eased one of the job's perennial burdens - the need to seek renewed funding to operate every three years.
"We are so fortunate and thankful that for once we have stable funding," he said.
Blanton believes that because of the need to connect with taxpayers during multiple election cycles, the sheriff's office is more tuned in to the needs and interests of the community than it's ever been.
"We were continually engaged with the community (during the election campaigns)," he said. "We can't stop doing that."
The past few summers have given Sisters area residents a thorough appreciation for one of the sheriff's office's other major roles: Emergency management.
Last summer, sheriff's deputies and search and rescue personnel evacuated Crossroads and Tollgate in the face of the Black Crater Fire.
Blanton said the sheriff's office has benefitted from that experience, testing and refining plans and techniques.
Citizens can do a lot to make evacuation safer and smoother.
"Our main concern is people not being prepared," Blanton said. "We can't help everyone."
Blanton said that every household in Sisters should pre-plan for evacuation due to flood, wildfire or other emergency. Have a list of things to take with you, especially critical items like medications. Know escape routes and know where you will go.
"Don't become part of the problem," Blanton said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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