Lucas County OH sheriff warms towns that don’t pay for patrolling will see less of us
TOLEDO, Ohio December 11th, 2022 Changes are on the way to how Lucas County Sheriff deputies patrol part of the county.
Some townships will see more patrols after their voters approved new funding. Others are about to see fewer.
The Lucas County Sheriff has been warning townships that this change was coming. Some decided to come up with new money for patrols, others did not.
On January 1st if there is a life or death emergency in Spencer Township then a Lucas County Sheriff’s deputy will arrive. If it’s something minor, people there may not get a deputy depending on how busy they are.
“They did not provide any funding to the county for police patrols so they pretty much have decided they’re going to continue as they have in the past,” said Sheriff Mike Navarre.
Sheriff Navarre told townships without a police force for the last few years that he’d be scaling back road patrols unless they paid for those service. He says one deputy patrolling 24/7 costs about $750,000 annually and that’s without fuel and vehicle maintenance.
Springfield Township got that message and went to voters to fund patrols. Voters agreed on enough money for three full time deputies. That’s where a majority of the township calls originate.
“Springfield Township really was the problem out of those 8 because of their size, their call volume and population. They continue to grow,” said Sheriff Navarre.
Spencer, Harding, Providence, Swanton, Richfield and Jerusalem townships did not offer up money so they will not get any extra patrols. Sheriff Navarre hopes to have one deputy free in the eastern part of the country and one on the western side for patrols. But with vacation days or deputies out sick it might be hard to keep those patrol. Some of these townships average less than one call per day.
“It’s not going to be a big difference from what they have seen in past years because they aren’t really getting a lot of police presence now,” said Sheriff Navarre.
Monclova Township is the other township but those voters too have funded a police levy for a deputy 24/7.
WTVG
