Sheriff Mark Pettway made an early appeal to the Jefferson County Commission to consider allotting more money to his department to help keep deputies from leaving for other agencies in the area. Read more.
Thomas Cleveland, a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, was indicted this week for assault in relation to an on-duty shooting April 20. According to a statement from the Jefferson County district attorney’s office, the State Bureau of Investigation investigated the case and submitted its findings to the DA’s office, which presented the case
Jefferson County doesn’t see eye-to-eye with its sheriff concerning a recent budget change. In a release Thursday, Sheriff Mark Pettway said the Jefferson County Commission had frozen 30% of the Sheriff’s Office Budget for fiscal year 2024. Pettway equated the action to “defund(ing) law enforcement.” The public information officer of Jefferson County responded with its own release that said Pettway misstated the county’s action. According to the county release, the commission requested a freeze of 30% of all funded existing job vacancies throughout the county system for fiscal 2024. “As has been well documented throughout multiple industries, including local government, filling positions is challenging,” the county release read. “Tying up public funds by budgeting for positions that you are unlikely to fill within a fiscal year prevents us from using those funds to instead address operational or capital needs. Read more.
