Friday, December 24, 1999
Six deputies will beef up sheriff's unit
Warren Co. responds to growth
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — A half dozen more deputies will be on the job and one more will be in the classroom as the Warren County Sheriff's Office enters the next millennium.
Paul Payne becomes the sheriff's second Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officer in an effort to expand the program and serve more schools.
A road patrol deputy with more than 10 years on the job, he will spend three days each week at Columbia Elementary School in Deerfield Township teaching the anti-drug program to a dozen sixth-grade classes.
His presence there will free Deputy Mike Krznarich to focus on six other schools in districts around the county, and allow the duo to offer more safety classes to younger grades, such as stranger danger.
Five of the schools joined the sheriff's DARE program this year, prompting the need for another officer, Deputy Krznarich said.
What DARE offers
He attributes the jump in requests for the 17-week course to an interest in anti-violence programs and to tremendous growth in the area.
Warren County, which marked its second straight year as Ohio's second-fastest growing county, has seen a population jump of 23 percent since 1990.
“Growth is part of it. And with the recent violence that has increased at all the school levels, I think schools have pushed for programs that are meant to discourage that type of behavior,” Deputy Krznarich said.
“Although a lot of the drugs and things are covered in health and science classes, there's not much about non-violence training and settling disagreements like we teach in DARE.”
The same growth that fueled expansion of the DARE program has spurred a need for more deputies to patrol the roads, investigate cases, and keep the courtrooms safe, Sheriff Tom Ariss said.
“The workload is going up and that's the bottom line,” he said.
Consequently, he will spend an additional $281,000 on the six new deputies next year.
Two of the new hires are expected to start Jan. 3 and others are being interviewed to fill the four remaining positions, said Capt. Gary Miller.
Half of the six might wind up on road patrol, with two more in court services and another assigned to the investigations unit, he said.
Forty-one deputies are currently assigned to road patrol, with 21 patrolling unincorporated areas of the county outside Deerfield Township. The township pays for another 16 deputies to provide coverage there. Four deputies work the village of South Lebanon under a separate private contract.
Security force
Besides the road patrol, an increase in security measures in all courthouses this fall has taken its toll on the court security staff, which also is responsible for transporting prisoners, Capt. Miller said.
The installation of metal detectors and X-ray machines at county and juvenile courts since early November means more staff is needed to run the equipment, he said.
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