Clear Creek County Sheriff Matt Harris tells the Courant after a year on the job, significant advances have been made in the department but budget constraints stall forward motion.
In a letter sent to every resident in Clear Creek County with a postal box or address, Harris reiterates the new policy of the sheriff’s department to put “public service first and public safety always.”
However, Harris said current county budget constrictions leave him “trying to do the job with one hand tied behind his back.”
One of the biggest differences from taking office, Harris said, is the department approaching full staffing for patrol and detention deputies in the jail, eliminating the need for overtime which he said taxes personnel and budgets.
“That means a lot of money in overtime and a lot of people working ridiculous hours which isn’t safe, you can’t have people working 80 hours a week, plus it kills our budget,” Harris said.
The county budget is the nemesis to moving the department forward into what Harris described as the modern era of law enforcement and he acknowledged the sheriff’s department is the largest portion of that budget.
Earlier this year, Clear Creek County Commissioners announced employees are moving to a four-day, 32-hour work week as an incentive to retain and attract employees in lieu of a raise in pay.
“Instead of giving them the raise they deserve, we’re putting them at 32 hours so we’re giving them some time back. That’s basically to defer giving them raises,” County Commissioner George Marlin said in an article in the Courant from Dec. 17, 2024.
The dichotomy of efforts to bring county law enforcement into the modern age while facing budget constraints Harris said feels like trying to get the job done with one hand tied behind your back.
“I’m not asking for the biggest shiny object, I’m asking to run a modern-day law enforcement operation,” Harris said in his interview with the Courant. “We did not invest in a lot of technology in the previous administration and we didn’t invest in our people so we’ve fallen significantly behind where a traditional and modern day law enforcement operation should be.”
Late last year the sheriff’s department agreed to take on an additional role of law enforcement for Georgetown following the departure of the newly hired police chief Dan Trechter who quit after two weeks on the job, according to town records.
According to the Intergovernmental Agreement signed with the Georgetown Board of Selectmen, sheriff’s deputies will provide at least three days of patrols a week to the town and administrative staff to file and record reports at an hourly overtime rate.
In January, Harris’ office filed an invoice with Georgetown for $14,676, representing $3,866 in records services and $10,810 for patrol in December of last year.
“I think the citizens are happy, they’re seeing us on the streets,” Harris said.
According to the agreement’s language, it is set to expire in May of this year. Harris said he’s not clear if the current setup will be canceled, extended or modified at that time.
“My mindset is they either need to have a fully-staffed police department or they need to not have one because then it becomes the burden of my staff by necessity,” Harris said.
When Harris first took office in January of last year he stated “transparency” would be a priority as he believed it was not a priority in the last administration.
The recent letter to residents, Facebook posts and the hiring of full time Public Information Officer Jennifer Fulton is evidence the department is moving forward in communicating with the public.
“We are just going to be honest with people you know, the good, the bad and the ugly, people deserve to know what their sheriff’s office is doing,” Harris said.
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