x
Breaking News
More () »

Lenawee Sheriff's Department needs funding

Lenawee county officials are considering giving the sheriff's department a bump in funding to hire more staff.
Sheriff Welsh asked the county for more funding Thursday

LENAWEE COUNTY, MI (Toledo News Now) – Lenawee county officials are considering giving the sheriff's department a bump in funding to hire more staff.

Lenawee County Sheriff Jack Welsh asked the county for more funding to help his department respond to the increased number of complaint calls recently.

"The officers are really struggling," Welsh said. "People are getting more violent. I've had more officers hurt this year than ever. We're getting more complaints and we're doing things with less officers."

Welsh said the county needs at least two new full-time road patrol officers, but the county said they just don't have the funding.

"We have limited resources with which to conduct county operations and the sheriff's department is continuing to be staffed at the same level that they have been staffed for the last year," said Lenawee County Administrator Martin Marshall.

Welsh said that is the problem: as local police departments make cuts, the sheriff's department has had to pick up the slack. They are responding to more calls than ever before.

On Thursday, one county commissioner proposed giving the department $50,000 to hire part-time road officers and $60,000 to help with other miscellaneous costs.

"I'll have to work with what I get," Welsh said. "But it becomes more and more difficult to do some of the things I think need to be done."

The proposal will be voted on in mid-December.

Before You Leave, Check This Out