Alachua County Commission moves toward placing animal control officers under Sheriff’s Office
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At an August 5 special meeting, the Alachua County Commission directed staff to continue discussions about moving animal control officers under the Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby said staff had asked Sheriff Chad Scott to consider handling some of the County’s animal enforcement responsibilities; the annual cost would only be about $60k more than the current cost after about $800k in startup expenses.
Commissioner Ken Cornell said he was “very much in favor” of the proposal and mentioned that the County had previously asked Sheriffs Sadie Darnell, Clovis Watson, and Emery Gainey to take on the animal enforcement responsibilities and Scott was the first Sheriff to agree to look at it.
23 Florida counties place animal enforcement under the Sheriff’s Office
Assistant County Manager Gina Peebles said that transferring animal enforcement responsibilities to the Sheriff’s Office would enhance both officer safety and community service, and the Sheriff’s Office handles these responsibilities in 23 other counties in Florida. She said the animal control officers would benefit from direct communication with the Combined Communications Center, and body-worn cameras would offer an added layer of protection and safety. Animal control officers would also have access to law enforcement databases, giving them more information about a situation before they arrive.
Undersheriff Joshua Crews said the plan was to “basically adopt the policy and procedures of the animal shelter and enforcement as is, and then basically marry them with the best law enforcement practices throughout the state.” The animal control officers will not be sworn law enforcement officers, and the County anticipates that most, if not all, of them will move over to work for the Sheriff’s Office.
Animal control officers would be on ASO’s radio system
County Manager Michele Lieberman said the animal control officers currently have to call for law enforcement assistance if they need backup, but under the new proposal, they would be on the same radio system as the deputies.
Wheeler: “Animal service people have a different approach to animals and the people who own them”
Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler did not like the proposal because “we have a lot of mental health issues that go along with dog ownership,… [and] animal service people have a different approach to animals and the people who own them,… and I am just really concerned about the association of police enforcement as a first response.”
Commissioner Mary Alford reminded Wheeler that the animal control officers would be the same people who are currently working for the County in that role.
Crews said another benefit would be that the animal control officers would have radios with live GPS, so when they press the emergency button, first responders can go to their exact location. He also said that if the majority of current animal control officers don’t move over to the Sheriff’s Office, “we don’t want to take it… We can’t start from scratch.”
Commissioner Anna Prizzia said the proposal should also improve response times for animal control calls “because there’s more people who could be cross-trained.”
Agreement would not transfer Animal Services or the shelter to ASO
Wheeler continued to object to losing control of Animal Services, and Prizzia again said that only animal control would be transferred to the Sheriff’s Office, not Animal Services or the shelter, which would stay under County government.
Cornell added, “This Sheriff is, in my opinion, as good as any in the state, and so I think it actually enhances your concern of mental health because of our co-responders… and the additional resources that they will now have, with the existing rural deputies coming under one department.”
Wheeler expressed concern that some animal control officers would not want to move to the Sheriff’s Office, and Lieberman said, “There are employees who are not supportive of this idea, but change is hard… If I were to be here, making recommendations for operational decisions based on 100% employee agreement,… it’d be difficult to move forward with ideas… But we are not reinventing the wheel here. We’re not forging new ground… We have brought you this recommendation because there are 23 other counties that are doing this across the state.”
Contract has not yet been negotiated
Lieberman explained that she was looking for direction from Commissioners about whether they wanted her to move forward with the idea: “A contract still has to be put in place that determines how the relationship works… The board would have to ultimately approve that contract and how the process works.”
Cornell again told Wheeler this would not transfer the animal shelter to the Sheriff’s Office but would just transfer the enforcement piece. Wheeler said, “We have a hard enough time keeping personnel on staff at the shelter. It’s hard work, it’s really awful work, and it’s hard to keep people staffed, and we’re asking staff people to go work with the government entity that they’re not excited about working with.” Cornell reminded her that the Sheriff’s Office would not take over enforcement unless 60% of the staff moved over.
Prizzia said she wanted to be very clear: “I am not interested in any way, shape, or form, in us transferring Animal Resources and the shelter and adoption services and control of the shelter. I think that belongs with us.” However, she said, for bite cases and investigations, “those are situations where you need somebody with teeth and somebody who can do investigations.”
Prizzia said Animal Control currently “takes forever to respond”; they don’t have access to the databases needed to do investigations and don’t have body-worn cameras. She also pointed out that this would be a contract, and if the Commission and community don’t like how it works, it can be changed back.
Wheeler was concerned that this would result in more dogs being brought into the shelter while it is already crowded, and Cornell said, “I hear that loud and clear, I get you, but I also know this Sheriff and know that this Sheriff is going to work to not make that happen… I also trust that the Sheriff hears that concern from this board and will make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Prizzia pointed out that this will allow the Animal Resources Director to focus on the shelter instead of also overseeing the enforcement officers.
Wheeler: “[I’m] watching what’s happening nationwide, where we really are not in charge of our law enforcement anymore.”
Wheeler continued to object and said, “It’s very generous [of the Sheriff to offer to take this on], but I’m not sure you all have the time and energy for it, either… [I’m] watching what’s happening nationwide, where we really are not in charge of our law enforcement anymore, we’re really not — we’re at the whim of whoever happens to be at the head of our local army, in our state or national governments. So it just makes me nervous that we integrate too much right now.”
Director of Animal Resources Julie Johnson: “Let’s see how this works.”
Julie Johnson, Director of Animal Resources, said the County had been “really looking” at the issue for months: “There’s no one way animal enforcement is run, nationwide. In California, all my officers were sworn officers; they actually carried guns.” She said she herself had previously been a sworn animal control officer under a police department: “Let’s see how this works.”
Lieberman said, “Presuming that the board moves forward and that there is an agreement and the transfer moves forward, we will absolutely work with [employees] to help them feel more comfortable.”
Motion
Cornell made a motion to direct staff to move forward with the Sheriff’s proposal and work on bringing back a discussion to the board, regarding how it would operate; Prizzia seconded the motion.
Public comment
During public comment, Tamara Robbins asked whether the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee had provided input on the change and why it was being brought forward for the first time at an August budget meeting.
Cornell and Prizzia both said the idea had been discussed for years, but this is the first time the Sheriff has been willing to take it on. Prizzia added, “Ultimately, these operational decision are the [County] Manager’s decisions.”
Alford: “Especially since our current Sheriff was elected, we’ve changed our relationship a lot with law enforcement, and I think that’s a good thing. I see us as more partners and less adversarial… I see this as part of our ongoing sort of melding of our government entities and our partnerships into working together for the full betterment of the community.”
Alford added, “Especially since our current Sheriff was elected, we’ve changed our relationship a lot with law enforcement, and I think that’s a good thing. I see us as more partners and less adversarial. I see us as working together to achieve goals and less, you know, holding our budgets hostage and things like that… In terms of a healthy operating community, I see this as a real strength, because this is a partnership… I see this as part of our ongoing sort of melding of our government entities and our partnerships into working together for the full betterment of the community.”
Wheeler said she would prefer to wait until the new shelter is constructed and operating, which would also give the Sheriff time to get vacancies at the jail in a “stable” state.
The motion passed 4-1, with Wheeler in dissent.
$800,000 in start-up costs? For transferring existing personnel from one department to another? They want to add more calls and likely stress to the CCC staff who are already underpaid and overworked. Even now when you call, the chance of being put on hold or having to go through multiple “qualifiers” has increased dramatically over the past several years.
Something else that should be concerning is Alford’s statement, “Especially since our current Sheriff was elected, we’ve changed our relationship a lot with law enforcement, and I think that’s a good thing. I see us as more partners and less adversarial. I see us as working together to achieve goals and less, you know, holding our budgets hostage…” That’s because she didn’t want to work with the prior Sheriff. Alford is like Maxine Waters, who may have permitted the current Animal Resources Director’s staff in California to carry firearms, but likely didn’t allow them to be loaded.
This smells like an aquarium full of dead 🐠 or at least that pile of 💩 left by the people they invited to town and bought hotels for.
I don’t know the answer to animal control issues, but I needed help Fri. afternoon & could NOT get any! A pit bull was roaming our very small city neighborhood–NO tags, nothing, & of course, I could only get an answering machine. I left my name & phone number, but I never heard anything—even today–NOT a word. I am a 77 yr woman who lives alone & only because this has happened before, I bought a pistol, which is loaded & I am licensed to carry, but my son is afraid I’ll get in trouble. I refuse to lose my life to a stray dog!!!!! There have been too many cases of dog attacks in this county. SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!!!!
I’ve seen this not go well in other places when doing the same thing
Where? Be more specific, NYBob. In FL we have experience with these things but share with us your NY wisdom on how it is done up there.
Taxes going up
Good, it’ll save overhead costs and supply the sheriff with more K-9 dogs (and cats) to train. 🙃
This smells like more responsibility for an overworked an underpaid sheriffs department. They were turned down by the three previous sheriffs for a reason. Notice no mention of how the 23 (out of 67) liked this added burden or even which counties are doing it.
This is ridiculous. They’re going to deputize dog catchers?…America is a police state and it’s only getting worse!
You might be interested to know that there are hundreds of people who work for the sheriff’s office who are not, in fact, deputized. The animal control officers will add to those ranks.
Excuse me for using the term ‘deputize’…my point being is that animal control is being brought in under the law enforcement umbrella. Don’t be daft.
Slice – I’ll say this slowly…there are SWORN personnel and UNSWORN in any LE agency. These transferees will be UNSWORN but likely will have backup as needed. This is a move to streamline the process and tomorrow the sun will still rise. Hope this helps so you can sleep better in our “police state” (sic).
Loy – One day you’ll learn about Palantir and Carbyne and all of the miscellaneous data points that feed them.
I’m impressed – tell us more.
Here is what I want to know: why? Other than just change for change sake?
What I keep hearing is that animal control “doesn’t answer their phone and doesn’t respond.” If calls go unanswered and there’s, for instance, a dangerous dog running around the neighborhood, guess who the citizen calls next.
That’s right, they call 911. And then the 911 people have to try to get ahold of an animal control officer which is, apparently, more difficult than one might expect.
At least the communications unit will answer the phone on a recorded line and assign the issue to an animal control officer.
That’s a valid response but does that really justify moving animal control under the purview of the sheriffs office? Shouldn’t the county just properly fund and staff the current department? I’m sure they can purchase a recording system for the phone calls…they don’t need LEO databases, CCC, etc.
This is like putting the people who deal with luggage and metal detectors at an airport under the purview of Homeland Security. Just like TSA, animal control should not be placed under a law enforcement umbrella. Police state continues to creep…
Nobody wants to live in Poetown/Harveyville for what animal control technicians make. Even nicer restaurants have to take what they can get, as far as employees. It wasn’t like this 10+ years ago. As someone commented on Facebook, look at those useless old crones who couldn’t solve the simplest of problems. Same for Lil Kenny, etc.
Employee shortages is a national problem Peabody.