It’s going to take more than encouragement to revive the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
The effort needs $5.3 million, Sheriff-elect Eugene Brantley told Augusta commissioners Tuesday.
Voters chose change, and Brantley said his goals in replacing Sheriff Richard Roundtree include the following:
- Average response times under 15 minutes
- Answering all alarm calls
- Deputies patrolling downtown at all hours
- Jail maintenance and repairs
- Proactive policing, as in “stopping crime before it happens”
Richmond County is the largest full-service sheriff’s office in Georgia, meaning it’s the only entity charged both with fighting crime and running the county jail.
It takes thousands more calls than surrounding counties, Brantley said.
But its deputies are the “lowest paid” among many, he said.
Almost every other agency pays deputies an average of $26 an hour, Brantley said.
“Compared to our $22 an hour, they’re never going to come work here,” he said.
While he doesn’t take office till January, Brantley said his phone is already ringing with calls about fighting at gas stations, deputies to direct traffic where stoplights are out, looting of businesses and two homicides.
“If we had more officers, maybe we could have prevented some of this,” he said.
In Columbia County, a certified deputy makes $57,700, while a new Georgia State Patrol trooper makes $63,684. The same deputy can be making $58,873 in 18 months and the trooper $69,000, according to Brantley’s presentation.
A certified deputy makes a starting salary of $50,000 in Richmond County, it said, and the next increase – to $53,000 – is the average salary of deputies with 20 or more years of experience.
Jailers in Columbia County start at $52,500, while those in Richmond County, where the position is a starting point for many Richmond County deputies, make almost $10,000 less.
“Competitive pay is crucial,” Brantley said. “If it’s between us and Columbia County, and us and Georgia State Patrol, where do you think they’re going?”
In addition, the Georgia POST Council is increasing minimum training hours from 400 to 800, which will make recruiting new graduates more difficult, he said.
“If we don’t make some changes, we’ll never catch up and fill our shortage,” he said.
The $5.3 million represents about 7% of Augusta’s existing $76 million law enforcement budget, and 2.7% of the total $200 million general fund and law enforcement budget.
The sheriff’s office has been understaffed for years. Currently it has about 188 vacancies in a staff of 722. Brantley said the 188 excludes several positions already eliminated to cover raises for existing staff.
Commissioners agreed the sheriff’s office needed to raise pay, but doubted the city can afford a $5.3 million increase next year.
“I don’t think we can get to $5.3 million,” Commissioner Sean Frantom said. “It might be in phases.”
The commission continues work on the 2025 budget in the coming weeks.
