Between them, they have more than five decades of experience in law enforcement.
But they’re settling into new roles and working within the confines of a predetermined budget.
Prior to winning his bid for Lowndes County sheriff, Mike Arledge had more than 31 years of experience in law enforcement. He also served seven years as a justice court judge.
His right hand, Chief Deputy Marc Miley, has been with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office for more than two decades. Arledge tapped Miley to replace previous Chief Deputy Greg Wright, who wanted return to criminal investigations.
Although Arledge and Miley are still learning new roles, they have already reworked deputies’ schedules and are looking forward to submitting a new budget this year.
To accommodate the lack of force depth, Sheriff Mike Arledge and Chief Deputy Marc Miley have designed a new system for deputies to overlap shifts. Previously, there were 12-hour shifts that started at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., but now some deputies are on staggered shifts beginning at 3 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Arledge said the new system is in its early stages, but the results are positive. The need to have more deputies during peak times is the main reason for the move, Arledge explained.
The pair have also added a new investigator to the department’s ranks to assist with seasonal increase in burglaries. Currently, there are 42 sworn officers and 24 reserve deputies. Both said they would like to add additional deputies, but they are constrained by the budget they inherited from previous Sheriff C.B. “Butch” Howard. The fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2011. Since the general election followed in November, the Lowndes County budget, which includes the sheriff’s budget, was passed before Arledge was voted into office.
The sheriff’s office operates on a $6.2 million budget. The budget includes the cost of courthouse security, buildings upkeep and prisoner meals and medical expenses.
In the future, Arledge plans to lobby for an increased budget to add more deputies.
Aside from increasing the size of the department, Arledge rattled off a wish list of needs: equipment, vehicles and in-cruiser laptops. Sometimes officers are forced to share vehicles because of a shortage. Currently, the department has about 40 vehicles in the fleet.
“Some cars have more than 200,000 miles and really don’t need to be on the road,” Miley said.
There is at least one vehicle with more than 300,000 miles.
“That is just unsafe conditions to be driving those cars because we have emergency situations we need to respond to,” he added.
The department has ordered two 2012 Dodge Chargers and is in the process of ordering a third. The replacement vehicles cost about $27,000.
Since the department’s trusted Ford Crown Victoria has been discontinued, deputies are trying out the police-package Dodge Charger and Ford Explorer.
Ideally, the department could replace six-seven cars a year, Miley said.
In the meantime, they will be looking into grants and other means to replace worn-out vehicles.
Although changes are minor thus far, they are starting to show a positive effect, Arledge said.
“I’m not going to change things just for the sake of change,” he said. “We will try something, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll try something different until we get it right. I’m always open to others’ ideas as well.”
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