Sheriff’s presence too light for some

City residents may be able to rely on police arriving at a moment’s notice, but residents of Spokane County’s unincorporated areas, such as one bank in Rockford, have come to expect a delay.

Sheriff’s deputies took 40 minutes to respond to a call of two men who unsuccessfully tried to pull an ATM away from a Rockford Farmers and Merchants bank with their pickup in September. The deputy assigned to cover Rockford that early Saturday morning was already back in Spokane – 25 miles away – when the robbery call came in, about to change shifts.

The bank’s security manager said though she understands and sympathizes with why it took an officer so long to respond, she wishes a deputy could be stationed in each small town.

“We truly appreciate their response to all the things that we ask for,” said Diane Groh with Farmers and Merchants. “Would I love to have somebody stationed in Rockford? Yes.”

An individual officer assigned to cover each of Spokane County’s outlying tiny towns would simply be economically unfeasible, said Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.

Currently, the county is divided into sheriff’s districts, three of which cover nearly everything west and south of the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley. One stretches from the South Hill to the county line near Latah.

Those three districts each have one deputy assigned to patrol the area during a 12-hour shift, and that deputy does everything from answering service calls to checking for speeders, Knezovich said.

When that deputy is busy driving somebody to jail or responding to a call, nearly a quarter of the county is unpatrolled. Deputies from neighboring districts fill in.

After conversations with the city councils of small towns such as Rockford, Fairfield and Waverly, Knezovich said he plans to increase the visibility of deputies in the far-flung areas of the county.

“The thing I heard from the small towns down south is that they don’t see us very often,” he said. “That needs to change. We need to have more of a presence in those areas.”

Sheriff’s Capt. Russ Shane said the Rockford ATM robbery came at an unfortunate time: right before a shift change. Officers also downgraded the priority of the call when they found out the robbers had already fled, Shane said.

Officers rotate through 12-hour shifts, and at least half of the force is still on patrol during any given shift change, Knezovich said.

“The bad guys are going to learn our shift changes no matter when we do them,” Shane said.

Deputies used to rotate on four shifts a day, but with an uncharacteristically low staffing level, Knezovich moved the shifts to 12-hour increments.

Knezovich said Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna recently announced that Washington ranks 50th in the nation for its officer-to-citizen ratio.

In Fairfield, the mayor said he’s seen an improvement in sheriff’s deputies’ presence in the last year.

“There’s going to be times when we have a need that they’re not going to be able to get down here as quick as we like,” said Mayor Ed Huber. “But I think they’re really working on it, and so far we’re really pleased with the improvements they’ve made.”