Sheriff's Dispatch – Benton County Enterprise

Benton County Sheriff Eric Knox

Hello Benton County, I would first like to thank you for your continued support! It has been my honor to meet many of you at community events, fish fries, pie auctions and HOA meetings. Now that it's campaign season, I continue to engage you at these events, but the issues are different now and the concerns are focused on the future rather than the present. I will share some of the questions and concerns here.

Over the past 7 1/2 years, my administration and I have done everything we can to build a sheriff's office that you can be proud of. Under my administration, we implemented a body armor program; a stop stick program, used to disable the tires of fleeing vehicles; a Taser program with advanced equipment used to save lives as an alternative to deadly force and to protect deputies from physical altercations when suspects resist arrest. We have used our Tasers in the line of duty several times a year, saving the county from untold potential liabilities since the program launched in 2018. We have upgraded your patrol vehicles with cages that were not present when I took up my duties. We traded weapons seized from criminals for rifles and shotguns to give deputies the means to defend yourself and protect against the ever-increasing threats we face in this ever-changing environment where law enforcement order are under attack, these weapons were non-existent in 2017. This transaction did not cost taxpayers, since the criminals who committed the crimes in our community essentially paid for our weapons. Thanks to the Benton County Friends of the Sheriff's Office, we were able to start a life-saving drone program and purchase a new K9. My administration designed and built a long-awaited and much-needed new prison, which brought in more than $2 million in revenue last year. This increase helped us increase deputy pay to the current $21.00 per hour from $12.61 per hour in 2017 and added 26 new jobs to our community with an average wage of more of $38,000 per year. We've nearly doubled our training budget and added mandatory training and new policies and procedures designed to make your sheriff's office more professional in every way. All of the programs and equipment I mentioned above had to have written policies and procedures because we had never had these opportunities before. To summarize, as an administration, we have done everything within our budgetary constraints, to offer you the best possible office.

I have been asked the question why we are having trouble retaining MPs, it is not just a local problem. My opponent will tell you it's my administration, I will tell you it's a national crisis. Agencies across the country are experiencing recruiting and retention challenges. Just listen to the news for that reassurance or do a quick Google search on law enforcement shortages and it will be confirmed. I was informed that the Independence Police Department was short 38 officers, while the KC PD was short over 280 officers. The Missouri State Highway Patrol is so short of patrol officers that it launched a new program to recruit former law enforcement officers and hold an abbreviated training program, to name a few. I have employees who took a pay cut to work in Benton County because they wanted to work for a great community that supports them and a constitutional sheriff that supports them.

Over the next four years, I intend to continue to educate, educate and demand excellence from my deputies and staff. We have replenished our workforce with top-notch law enforcement officers. Currently, we are only missing three positions, which still represents pressure for the current staff, but it is still manageable. There is no interruption in our intervention or in our patrols in your region. I started having staff report “extra patrols” to dispatch wherever they are patrolling so I can track it and report to you how many patrols came by and what time we were in your neighborhood .

Now that the prison is built and functioning properly and the office is operating to professional standards, one of my goals over the next four years will be to build an animal shelter. You might say “why sheriff?” What does this have to do with the sheriff's office? We currently have no place to quarantine dogs that bite people. We have no place to house animals whose owners are stopped on the road. We have no place to house animals when we serve search warrants on homes where animals are found and no one to care for them, not to mention all the animals rescued from abusive owners. For years, my deputies and I have used our personal time and money to bring food to pets when these situations arise, to ensure they stay fed and watered. This all happens more than you think and I view an animal shelter as a necessity for the community.

Another goal I have been working on, I plan to create a citizen academy as well as an explorer program for children. The Friends of BCSO have been raising funds for a MILO system for several years. This system is a virtual and real simulator that we will use for training our staff, filming scenarios, shooting drills, do not shoot and it will be a safe alternative for our academies. Thanks to the Friends of BCSO and the community, the MILO system will be purchased in the very near future!

Additionally, I am considering creating a marine patrol division within the sheriff's office. We can receive the boat and equipment free of charge through a government surplus equipment program and training provided by our state water patrol partners. This new program would cost the taxpayer very little, other than labor. A water division would reduce our response time to minutes for our waterfront calls and a strategically placed patrol vehicle would be available to the water division to reduce response times in our waterfront neighborhoods.

I hope this helps those of you that I haven't been able to reach and I appreciate your questions at future events and as always my door is open. Don't forget to get out and vote! The race for sheriff will be decided on August 6 since both candidates are Republicans. You can also vote early starting June 25 at the Benton County Courthouse.

Sheriff Knox