Rich County Sheriff’s Office stretched thin after half of their deputies quit, citing wages and lack of support

RICH COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — The Rich County Sheriff’s Office is a small department and has only had four deputies for their entire jurisdiction. But for a while, they’re going to be even smaller, since two deputies resigned on Sunday. The issues of insufficient pay, long hours, and lack of resources are shared by many local law enforcement agencies, especially those in rural areas.

The Rich County Sheriff’s Office is the acting police force for every town in the county, and as a result, they are stretched very thin. With only four deputies, even Sheriff Dale Stacey has to work shifts patrolling the roads, he told ABC4.com.

Garden City Mayor Mike Leonhardt said that the city contracts with the Sheriff’s Office to have the officers spend more time in the city, since they don’t have a police force of their own. “I feel for them,” he said. “It’s a big county as far as mile wise, and for them to be able to take care of it like they do, I think they’ve done a good job.”

One of the four deputies, Brian Willmore, has 16 years of experience in law enforcement, and for the last three years, he’s been a deputy at the Rich County Sheriff’s Office. He told ABC4.com that he enjoyed working as a deputy, but the stress in the summer got a bit overwhelming, because there are so few deputies to cover the entire county.

They also have to spend a lot of time on call. “During our ten days [on duty], you’re pretty much expected to respond to calls if they need you,” Brian said.

Audrey Willmore, his wife, said that Brian’s work schedule was hard for their family. “The kids have a very hard time, especially when he’s on those night shifts when he’s not around for bedtime,” she said.

Audrey added that the lack of staff makes her nervous too. “It’s nerve wracking in general to be married to someone in law enforcement, because it’s risky, it’s scary, so many things could happen, but it’s even scarier for me especially because what backup does he have, you know? There’s not a lot of backup. There’s not a lot of support up here.”

The pay has also been an issue. Brian and Audrey said that the pay and the benefits for a Rich County Deputy are not competitive with other agencies. Brian said that he’ll never be able to afford to own a home in Rich County on a law enforcement salary.

What led to the resignations

Brian and his partner resigned on Sunday. He said that they resigned, because the lack of pay, the lack of support in terms of adequate staffing, and the lack of change from county leadership all came together to make them realize that they couldn’t do it anymore.

“It would take two critical incidents at the same time to overwhelm our county,” Brian said. “Even one puts a strain on our resources for first responders, both law enforcement, medical, and fire.”

Brian said he struggled with resigning, knowing that he’s going to be putting even more pressure on the remaining deputies and the community by cutting the workforce in half. But ultimately, he said that there was never going to be a good time to quit, and he just needed to rip the band-aid off.

“For him, it’s not about the money, it’s not about the clout, it’s not about the praise, it’s about being able to do his job effectively and safely, and it’s what the community deserves,” Audrey said.

Rich County Sheriff Dale Stacey said that it’s going to take time to adjust until they’re able to fill those positions. “We’ll be a little shorthanded, but we’ll just have to do some adjusting and hopefully get a little help from some other agencies and see what we can do,” he said.

Brian loves Rich County, and he loves his community, and so he tried to make the changes needed to address the problems. Last year, he and his partner went to the county commissioner to try to get all the deputies a raise.

They asked for a ten dollar raise, but in the end, they only got five dollars. After they got the raise, Brian said that the county took their comp time away. Deputies earn comp time when they work overtime, and they can choose to use it for additional time off.

“We’re the only ones that actually worked the comp time and actually used it and banked up the hours for it, so it almost felt like retaliation, from them giving us a raise to immediately taking away one of the other benefits that we had,” Brian explained.

Recruitment problems

“I don’t think there’s a law enforcement agency in the state that’s not looking for people, and it gets to the point where other agencies take them from you by offering a big sign-on bonus or paying them more money. If someone comes here, they kind of have to want to be here,” Sheriff Stacey said.

In addition to working for pay raises, Willmore also worked hard to get additional positions created. He asked for four new deputy positions so that they could double their workforce, but in the end, the county commission created two new positions.

Stacey confirmed that the county commissioner recently created two new deputy positions, but those are going to be school resource officer positions. They are currently hiring for those positions, but now they are going to have to try to fill the recently vacated deputy positions too.

The problem is that they’re not getting a lot of applicants, Stacey said. Brian echoed this, saying that when they opened up those new positions, they received three applications, and none of the applicants worked out.

Stacey told ABC4.com that he recently hired a young man to fill one position, but that new hire still has to go through the academy, and so he won’t be able to start working for another three to four months.

Mayor Leonhardt said that the staffing issues are a big concern for him and Garden City. He said that they’re going to have conversations about if it’s time to create their own city law enforcement. Leonhardt added that they’re lucky that other agencies help during busy weekends, like Raspberry Days, July 4th, and Pioneer Day.

Leonhardt added that Garden City is also considering financially helping the Rich County Sheriff’s Office to create at least one more deputy position. “If we can help hire another deputy it helps them, it helps the county, it helps the city as well,” he said. “My preference would be to help them. If we can’t, then we’ll have to look at other options.”

Sheriff Stacey said that money is a large part of the problem for recruitment, but it’s not the only problem. The county commission is reportedly trying to give their deputies more money, but housing is also an issue, especially in Garden City.

“If there is housing to be had, it’s very expensive, and so it’s hard to get people,” Stacey said. On a deputy’s salary, they cannot afford to buy a home for $800,000, which is what Stacey said most of the homes in the area go for.

Before the raises, Willmore said that Rich County Sheriff Deputies make $29.50 an hour, which would annually be $61,360, without any overtime. With the $5 an hour raise, deputies will make $71,760 annually without overtime.

When Brian started at the Sheriff’s Office, he was making the same amount of money as someone straight out of the academy, despite having 13 years of law enforcement experience at that time.

Comparatively, Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office has a pay plan that is designed to regularly provide officers with raises as they gain experience. According to those plans, a deputy with ten years of experience should be making around $83,000 a year.

Ultimately, Brian Willmore wants county officials to recognize that there is a problem. It’s not just about money. He wants deputies “to have the support from the leadership saying that they’re going to take care of us, that they are going to get us the backup that we need and the deputies that we need during the summertime. It’s all of that going forward.”