Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez recently got approval from the County Council for a set of staff changes. Among other things, the sheriff can upgrade his staffing for schools, bolster his dispatch division, and save a little money.
Sheriff Martinez reports that one of his lieutenants, John Lange, recently retired. That gave him a chance to do some staff restructuring and restore a position for a supervising school resource officer.
“In 2008, we had a school resource sergeant, but it was one of the positions that was cut as part of the recession,” Martinez explained. “So, we’ve been without a school resource sergeant supervisor since 2008. And so, with the retirement of Lt. John Lange this gave me the opportunity to parlay that position into a school resource supervisor. And I took one of my other lieutenants and I combined his duties in the investigative division. He was already an investigative lieutenant, but I’ve now combined those two divisions into one.”
He said the supervising school officer would oversee all the other school officers, plus that person would be responsible for a school.
Right now, Sheriff Martinez said he has one person responsible for the schools in the Snyderville Basin.
“Where the sheriff’s office is concerned, I’ve got Parley’s Park, Jeremy Ranch, Ecker and Trailside,” Martinez continued. “That’s my responsibility within the county. I’ve only got one deputy on the Park City side for those four schools. So that deputy’s traveling from school to school to school. Now I’ll be able to have at least two deputies here on the west side, one on the South Summit campus, one on the North Summit campus.”
The Sheriff said he’s just about fully staffed in every area of his department, except for dispatch. There, he is down five positions.
He’s making changes there. For one thing, he’s trying to give dispatch staffers the chance for a career ladder.
“We’ve had one director and two supervisors, and 19 dispatchers,” Martinez said. “So, you become a dispatcher, you don’t really have any opportunity for any movement. I got together with my current dispatch director, and said, “How can we make a career ladder for these people.” We want them to stay around. We want them to have the opportunity for advancement. So, with that, some of the money that we saved from the lieutenant’s position retiring, we now have the ability, that we have one director, two supervisors and four shift leaders.”
With the current vacancies in dispatch, he is moving the staff from ten-hour shifts to twelve hours—but giving them more days off.
We asked him what he’s requesting for his department as budget season gets underway. He said he will be looking for one more deputy; he wants a part-time evidence technician to supplement the current full-time technician.
And he wants to get another ‘working inmate” program.
“We get inmates that we give them a skill,” Martinez explained. “And that skill can hopefully translate into a job when they get out of the correctional facility. And it gives the deputy an opportunity to work with these inmates and help them better themselves. We already have two teams that go out, and they do the shoveling for the elderly, they go out and they manicure lawns, they stripe the roads, they help with any non-profit organizations. I mean, they’re very actively involved in the community. And there’s definitely a need to have another working inmate program.”
