Overtime costs for the Houston County Sheriff’s Department are up due to a busy court system and turnover in the communications department.

Since October 1, Sheriff Andy Hughes reports the two areas have cost the taxpayers 962 hours of overtime.

“We were allocated $75,000 for overtime,” Hughes told county commissioners Thursday. “It kind of looks like we are way over budget in overtime, but actually we are not.”

Hughes’ department is being reimbursed $11,000 from highway safety grants and $22,742 from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs for overtime pay.

The largest amount of overtime comes from providing courthouse security, Hughes said, where four of the department’s 55 deputies are assigned to full-time Courthouse security; they have logged 819 hours in overtime this fiscal year.

“We have five courtrooms going at one time and lots of shifting of prisoners,” Hughes said. “We have to move prisoners from the jail to the courthouse, secure them in the courthouse, make sure they get to the appropriate courtroom and keep deputies in the courtroom.”

Hughes said sometimes deputies have to be taken off patrol in order to cover the court cases. It is not unusual for one docket to contain 175 cases, he said. “Anytime the court is open, we have to be there.”

Another deputy spends all of this time transporting prisoners across the state and Southeast. “This is jail or prison to court transfers or if we have extraditions. Somebody may get stopped in Atlanta and there be a warrant for them down here. We have to go get him.”

To cut those courtroom overtime costs, Hughes proposes hiring part-time retired law enforcement officers. “They can work 30 to 32 hours a week for security and we can pay them less. It would be a savings because we wouldn't have to pay benefits. They are already certified to carry firearms,” he said.

Another 143 hours of overtime has occurred in communications. The department has 16 dispatchers, and a minimum of three are required on a shift.

“We have a large turnover in communications,” Hughes said. “Salary is a problem. Until we get up to meet the salaries offered by other agencies, we will turn them over.”
The last salary study and adjustment was three years ago.

Only trained and certified communications workers can answer 911 calls.

Commissioners Bobby Snellgrove asked if the county could establish another 3-digit number for non-emergencies. “So we don't have to have a certified person,” Snellgrove said.

Hughes said he doubts that would help, since communications workers would still have to be shuffled around to handle the call volume.

The sheriff encourages people to call 677-4807 for non-emergency reports. 911 is for emergencies only.