NORFOLK, Va. - In a city down more than 200 police officers, could the help needed come from the Sheriff's Office? Sheriff Joe Baron says partly.
"We're looking for those opportunities where we can help out, where the Chief of Police is asking us how can we free up officers, so you could have more officers on the street," Baron told News 3 in an interview Friday.
Those efforts are being felt on Granby Street, where six sheriff's deputies work with police Thursday-Sunday nights to patrol.
"They have full arrest authority. They have all the same authorities as law enforcement it's just the different certification," said Baron.
Those different certifications are why deputies can't just do all of the jobs police do. Sheriff Baron says the deputies' primary roles are to run the city jail, provide security at the courthouse, and serve people with legal notices.
Deputies have different training and certifications than police, so they can't just start to respond to calls for service.
"At the end of the day, deputies don't have that additional training to respond to the plethora that the police officers respond to," he said.
Still, deputies can do things like beef up law enforcement presence and respond with police to mental health crises. Their work can help free up police officers to go back on patrol.
The Sheriff's Office has 315 deputies with about 30 job openings right now. "We're not as short-staffed as the police department right now. That's why we're offering the help that we can," said Baron.
Right now, the city jail is actually seeing a lower number of inmates. On Friday, there were just under 600 inmates, compared to an average population of nearly 1,400 in 2012.
Baron says there could be several reasons why, including policies that have made it easier for people to get out of jail before sentencing.
"I think that the lower number of police officers out on the street may in some way impact the number of inmates who are in the jail. It's anyone's guess why the numbers are that low, but you would think with an uptick in crime that our jail population would start growing again and it's not," he said.
When people do end up in jail, the Sheriff's Office programs help prepare people to re-enter society, so they don't wind up back in jail. "Because we know that's what drives people to end up in jail to begin with - education, job skills, substance abuse, and mental health. If we get them in front of us, we've got a program," he said.
