Weld County pulls deputies from community in Northern Colorado to combat jail staffing shortage
The Weld County Sheriff's Office is pulling back some services to the community while the agency tries to combat a worker shortage within the county jail. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams announced the agency has pulled some deputies and employees from the community to make sure the jail is properly staffed. The changes are temporary until more employees can be hired and trained.
"We are having a terrible time finding people to work at the sheriff's office," said Weld County Sheriff's Office Cpt. Matt Turner.
Turner said the decision to pull resources, including the animal control division, from the community was a difficult decision. However, he said the sheriff was placed in a tough position due to lack of funding.
"The first obligation and statute the sheriff has is he is the keeper of the jail. By statute, it is the one thing he has to do," Turner said.
Turner also said the agency has had a difficult time recruiting people to join the profession after Colorado state lawmakers created bills that weren't favorable to law enforcement officers following the 2020 protests.
"Because of that, the draw to be a cop has diminished significantly," Turner said.
According to Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine, Reams and the agency raised their concerns about the staffing shortage in late 2023. She said she suggested pulling funding from other areas of the county to better combat the jail staffing shortage but did not have success.
"The sheriff has asked for more funding for quite some time now," Saine said. "This is the worst possible time to not prioritize our sheriff. We should have done that when he asked the first time."
"There are things we can cut out of our budget that are nice to have, but not need to have," Saine said.
Weld County Commissioner and Chair Kevin Ross said the board of commissioners agreed on Monday night to provide Reams some emergency financial aid. He said the county is now dipping into reserve funds to provide Reams the ability to provide an increase in pay to his staff.
"This is something we don't often do because we have set our budgets at the beginning of the year. So, to do something mid-term shows we are committed to the sheriff and his law enforcement agency and trying to keep the residents of Weld County safe," Ross said.
Ross said the county is also considering providing funds to the WCSO to offer signing bonuses to new employees.
Turner admitted, that until further changes are made and more employees are hired, the community may experience changes to the level of service they are accustomed to.
"There is going to be some calls that we are slow to respond to, if we are able to respond at all," Turner said.
Turner said some people calling for non-emergent assistance may end up being asked to file their requests for assistance online.
"Our intent behind this decision is not to impact the community. However, there is a ripple effect from this and we don't know what it is yet," Turner said.
