Sheriff Says Ticketing Writing Down Due To A Few Burglaries

From the Tribune and Georgian:

Traffic ticket drop off will not affect county finances
By Emily Goodson
Camden County Probate Court records show a sharp drop-off in the number of traffic tickets being written by Camden sheriff's deputies over the past few months. The reason for the decline, however, is a matter of debate. The probate records, called bond receipts, show that the court received 1,051 sheriff's office tickets in July 2006, compared to only 805 in July 2007. The court saw 1,073 sheriff's office tickets in August 2006 and only 124 in August 2007. Sheriff Bill Smith said Thursday that the department is trying to conserve money by pulling deputies off Interstate 95. "Gas is $3 a gallon, or thereabouts," he said. "It's very expensive to operate a vehicle out there." Lt. William Terrell, the public information officer for the department, also said in a written statement that a recent increase in burglaries on the north end of the county prompted sheriff's office administrators to assign more deputies to that area. "Deputies simply do not have the time or the resources to write as many tickets," he said. The ticket shortage means less money flowing into the county's general fund, though Finance Director Mike Fender said the decrease in tickets written should not affect Camden's finances. "It's not going to impact us," he said. "We anticipated it." Commissioner Steve Berry said that Smith has reduced the number of tickets his department writes in an attempt to punish the county for cutting his department's budget from a proposed $8.3 million to only $7 million. "I think it's just another example of Bill Smith's foolishness," Berry said. "You have to wonder: Is there any traffic enforcement going on in the unincorporated areas of the county?" Berry said the same thing happened three years ago when a different county commission decided to cut Smith's budget, adding that he does not believe Smith is trying to simply conserve resources. "I don't believe a word the sheriff's department says," he said. "They are notorious for providing false and misleading information." Vice Chairman Katherine Nisi Zell said she has noticed a decreased police presence on I-95 but declined to comment on the reason for the reduction in the number of sheriff's office tickets received by the Probate Court. Commissioner David Rainer said he had not heard of the decrease until Thursday and would have to research the issue further before commenting. "I have not looked at it," he said. "This may happen over a long period of time, I don't know." Commission Chairman Preston Rhodes was out of town and unavailable for comment. Commissioner Charlene Sears was unable to be reached before press time Thursday.

TRSP Review:
This didn't get much press, I am surprised Lt. Terrell hasn't complained about it. No one is talking about it at all. 124 tickets in August, saving gas, he claims. I say not. I say he knows exactly what he is doing, but it is going to end up to bite him in the end. This is the Sheriff not doing his job. Remember, August is when they feared no one would get paid, if they are not on 95, are they working? If they are not on 95 writing tickets, exactly what do they do in a day? Sure there are calls out in the county, but there has always been calls out in the county and we always saw at least one county officer on 95.

Why are we getting comments from the commissioners office, they have nothing to due with the Sheriff, if the Sheriff quit sending out officers would the Commissioners do something then? Doubtful, remember most of them don't want to double cross the Sheriff, and the other one just talks about what the Sheriff does wrong, but doesn't act upon what he says. Heck, none of them can even answer an email, so how can we expect them to represent us.

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