Law enforcement officers call Virginia's budget situation 'dire'

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Severe budget cuts would take officers off the streets, decrease the number of deputies in jails and courts, and jeopardize the safety of officers and the public, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine proposed cutting constitutional officers like sheriffs and commonwealth's attorneys by $270.5 million through 2012 to help deal with a more than $4 billion budget shortfall. The funding for local police departments would be reduced $73.4 million, and state police, prisons and juvenile justice facilities also would suffer cuts.
"It's an understatement to say that the proposed cuts are devastating," Stafford County Sheriff Charles Jett, surrounded by more than 60 law enforcement officials and prosecutors, said at a Capitol news conference where they called for legislators to restore their funding.
Jett said the reductions abolish nearly 1,500 deputy sheriffs' positions and amount to as much as a 30 percent cut in some counties.
In Spotsylvania County, it would mean the reduction of 26 of the sheriff's 88 state-funded positions, Jett said. In Bath County, the sheriff's department could no longer afford to provide 24-hour patrols.
The proposed budget calls for a change in staffing levels for deputies, from one per every 1,500 citizens to one for every 2,000 residents. It also decreases the amount localities get from the state to hold criminals in jail from $8 per day to $4.
"You cut public education and you increase classroom size. You cut public safety and people die, and that's a dramatic and a stark difference between the decisions that they have to make on cuts," said Virginia Beach Sheriff Kenneth Stolle, who resigned his state Senate seat to take the job.
While sheriffs are taking the brunt of the cuts, they are not alone.
Waynesboro Police Chief Doug Davis said from the fall of 2007 through 2012, funding for his department will be down more than $233,000, which equals five police officers in a department of 50.
Local governments can't absorb the cuts, he said.
Virginia State Police have laid off more than 100 workers, shut down an aviation unit in northern Virginia and left open 200 vacancies. The state also has stopped holding schools to train more troopers.
The state's commonwealth's attorneys offices are down more than 100 attorneys and 100 support staff, said Billy Davenport, Chesterfield County's top prosecutor. Commonwealth's attorneys can't park cars or find other ways to cut their budgets, he said, which means further cuts will put people out of work.
A half-dozen legislators took turns thanking the law enforcement officials and testifying to the danger and difficulty of their jobs. Each said the cuts to public safety should be as minimal as possible.
Del. Charles "Bill" Carrico, who was a Virginia State Police trooper for 15 years, said he understood what it was like to be asked to do more in that job for less.
"It's nothing new to them, but now we're asking them to do the impossible for less," he said.
While the public won't realize the result of many of the cuts - fewer deputies in jails, fewer officers responding to calls for backup - some could become painfully evident, the officers warned.
"When someone dials 911, they expect someone to show up," said Kevin Carroll, legislative chairman for the state Fraternal Order of Police.