Sheriff addresses policing issues

Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson came to last Wednesday's City Council meeting to address a concern raised by Mayor Chuck Ryan in an August 15 story in The Nugget regarding recordkeeping by the DCSO of their patrol activities in Sisters.

Nelson acknowledged, "I always say, whenever the sheriff's office makes a mistake, my face will be the first one you see; and we have made an error on these statistics we have been providing you over the last few months ... We'll continue to work that out, but the last three months he (Capt. Paul Garrison) has provided you tonight are the updated numbers that are an accurate count. That's just something we need to get dialed-in to the best of our ability."

He expressed frustration with hearing about the concern via the media, rather than with direct communication from the mayor. However, his officers have been aware of the Council's concerns.

At issue for the past several months have been inaccurate monthly reports presented to the Council by Deschutes County officers regarding traffic-stop warnings and citations issued. There have been complaints from citizens about speeding in town, and the Council has made repeated requests of the reporting officers for stricter enforcement of speed limits in Sisters.

Requests were made for physical presence of a patrol car and the blinking speed monitoring equipment to hopefully slow drivers down. Council also requested perhaps more citations being issued to hopefully slow the speeders. The sheriff's office has contended in the past that they try to use speed enforcement through the issuance of warnings as an educational tool.

Garrison brought with him accurate numbers for the previous three months to replace the former incomplete data. Ticket and warning statistics for May through July 2018 were: May - 12 warnings, five tickets; June - five warnings, 16 tickets; and July - 21 warnings, 17 tickets. Garrison indicated that currently they are using a layered approach within the city limits with a speed trailer, the Community Action Target team (officers on bicycles), and this week there should be a patrol car parked around town.

Over Labor Day weekend there will be traffic enforcement efforts for four days.

Ryan indicated he erred on the side of transparency in his quote to The Nugget. He explained, "Our looking at a separate police force has nothing to do with these issues. It's something that is going to come out of our visioning process, and I think the Council's going to decide whether we need to study that and whether it's time to look at it and strategize all that, but we are happy."

Sisters will continue to contract with the DCSO for law-enforcement services in the city. Most people agree that as Sisters continues to grow, adequate and appropriate law enforcement is an important topic that deserves study and planning for future needs.

"I think we owe it to ourselves when we do the strategic plan to look at that ... We're not going to rush into it. We're going to do our homework. It'll be a process. I just want to be sure we're on the record on that. Nobody on this council has ever said to me we need to rush into doing this," Ryan said.

Nelson stated, "It's an absolute honor to provide public safety to the community of Sisters. That's just something that is the sheriff's priority." He concluded, "I support whatever decision you make and whatever direction you go. When we retire patrol cars we will give them to Sisters at a fair price to help you jumpstart a department."