By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In Deerfield Township, Warren County Sheriff Tom Ariss temporarily abandoned a bike patrol to put more deputies on the road in a district where apartments, condominiums and new businesses seem to spring up in a blink.

In Mason, Chief Ron Ferrell struggles almost daily with trying to keep his force up to strength and balancing the safety needs of a community that has twice as many residents as a decade ago.

Those are the realities of policing in two fast-growing neighboring communities that between them contain one-third of the population of Warren County and are home to some of its largest businesses, as well as a giant amusement park and bustling retail districts.

Calls for service climbed so dramatically in Deerfield last year - 36 percent over 2000, compared with a slight decline in Mason - that county commissioners agreed to pay for three more deputies in the township beginning next year.

That will put 22 officers, or about one-third of the sheriff's sworn personnel, in the township.

At 13,529 calls last year, deputies at the Deerfield substation handled as much activity as their counterparts in Mason, who have about a dozen more officers.

Mason is authorized to have 36 officers, but is down to 32.

Col. Del Everett, the sheriff's chief deputy, attributed Deerfield's leap in calls to growing pains.

"A lot of it is in relation to the business district. You've got bad checks, shoplifting. We have car thefts at Kings Auto Mall," he said.

"But it also involves the people. When you've got more people, you've got more things happening," Col. Everett said.

While crime rates rise and fall year-to-year, both communities remain relatively safe places to live.

There have been no homicides in Warren County so far this year.

Typical calls involve thefts, assaults, criminal damaging and domestic violence, according to authorities.

Residential and business alarms and vehicle lockouts are among the top reasons for police calls in both communities.

Then there is the traffic.

"Traffic still remains our No. 1 concern," Chief Ferrell said.

"In summer, it's Kings Island. You just have a lot of traffic. It occupies a lot of our efforts."

In 2001, drivers in Mason logged 4,664 traffic violations and were involved in 706 crashes, or 200 more than five years ago.

Because of those numbers, Chief Ferrell said, he is looking to add a second accident investigator to his staff.

In the past two years, the Mason police chief has doubled the size of the department's detective squad and placed more officers in schools, following requests from the community.

Chief Ferrell said he doesn't plan to boost his staff again until 2004. In the meantime, he wants to fill the vacancies.

"Our biggest problem is trying to get people hired fast enough and integrated," he said.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com