Budget squeezing safety offices

Staff Photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press Georgia State Patrol Trooper Stephen Kennedy operates a laser speed detector monitoring motorists as they pass the Ringgold, Ga., exit as he patrols Catoosa and Whitfield counties.

After Georgia budget cuts last year forced a Summerville, Ga., crime lab to close, limited state troopers' gas budget and kept the state from rehiring investigators, local authorities hope to shield public safety offices from further cuts in 2011-12.

"Any cutback in public safety affects every county in the state," said Gordon County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Robert Paris.

In March, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation closed its crime lab in Summerville that serviced 10 North Georgia counties. Now local authorities must take evidence to the Atlanta lab.

"We try to submit as much evidence by mail as we can," Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said. "But some is prudent to take to the crime lab. We try to limit it to two times a month."

Local authorities also have seen how a shortage of Georgia State Patrol troopers limits traffic control and investigations on state highways and the interstate.

North Georgia lawmakers agree that cuts to public safety offices should be minimized in the state's 2011-12 budget.

"Some departments have taken a larger share of the cuts than others, and public safety is one of them," said Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, during a roundtable discussion with several North Georgia legislators in December.

Several lawmakers backed Meadows' assessment, agreeing that the responsibility for public safety should fall on the state. But no one could pinpoint a specific area from which most of the cuts should be drawn.

State spending was slashed from $21 billion to $17 billion over the last three years, and Gov.-elect Nathan Deal and majority Republican lawmakers are looking to cut another $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Deal has said he wants to cut corporate taxes and recently indicated to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that K-12 funding is likely to take a hit.

In 2010, state public safety officials say, they were the ones who took the hit.

In the Department of Public Safety, state trooper positions haven't been filled as officers leave, leading to 150 vacancies in 2010, department spokesman Gordy Wright said.

The troopers began last year with a gas budget of about $410 per car a month, but that was cut to $350 to $370 a month in the middle of 2010, he said. As a result, they have to limit driving time.

Wright said the department is trying to get enough money to start a trooper school this summer to fill some of the vacancies, but the details haven't been worked out.

At the local posts, the Dalton office has 17 troopers, the LaFayette office 10 troopers and the office in Calhoun has 12 troopers, Wright said. Each office is responsible for two counties.

In Gordon County, more deputies must respond to traffic accidents on Interstate 75 and take over the investigations, responsibilities typically handled by the state patrol, Paris said.

"With a shortage of troopers, the county has to pick up the slack," he said.

The GBI also has a shortage of agents investigating in the field, agency spokesman John Bankhead said. The agency continues to lose investigators to departments with better pay and lighter case loads and can't hire replacements with the budget cuts, he said.

The department operates on a little more than $60 million, which is its lowest budget since 2005, records show.

"We're losing agents to the [FBI] for higher-paying jobs and losing to local agencies for higher-paying jobs," Bankhead said.

Locally, the GBI has a field office in Calhoun and investigators help sheriffs' and police departments investigate criminal cases, including homicides. When the crime lab in Summerville closed, the agents had to move their offices from the lab to Calhoun, Bankhead said.

Closing the crime lab has affected Chattooga County Sheriff John Everett's office more than any other state cuts, he said. Several times, a hearing or court appearance had to be delayed because evidence couldn't be brought in time from the lab in Atlanta, Everett said.

But George Herrin, who's in charge of the GBI crime labs, said he hasn't heard of any backlogs in court after the Summerville crime lab closed.

While officials don't know if the lab in Summerville will receive any funds to reopen, the two other labs scheduled to close in 2010 were kept open with local funding, Herrin said.

Staff writer Andy Sher contributed to this story.

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