STARKVILLE – Oktibbeha County will soon hire its first dedicated animal control officer, a move Sheriff Shank Phelps said will help deputies keep up with a growing number of calls involving stray and injured animals.
The sheriff’s office expects to have its own animal control vehicle ready by May and hire a full-time officer by June, Phelps told members of the Starkville Rotary Club during their weekly meeting Monday at Hilton Garden Inn.
“We need it,” he said. “… We get way more animal calls now than we used to. I don’t like to see an animal suffering or see an animal in bad shape.”
Deputies currently respond to animal-related calls in the county, often relying on Starkville Police Department for assistance when animals are too large, aggressive or sick to be placed in OCSO patrol cars. Last July, supervisors approved a one-year agreement for SPD to provide animal control services to the county at a rate of $100 per call.
Phelps said the department responds to a significant number of animal control calls, though he did not provide a more specific estimate.
The addition of an animal control officer was one of several updates Phelps shared as he gave Rotarians an overview of the sheriff’s office, which operates on an annual budget of about $6.7 million – roughly $4.5 million for the sheriff’s office and $2.2 million for the jail division.
The department responds to about 2,000 calls each month, Phelps said, with patrol deputies averaging about 1,800 miles per month on the road.
Luckily, that work is spread among 40 deputies, a significant increase from the 10 deputies on the force when Phelps began his career in 1994.
“Day shift was 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and night shift was 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.,” Phelps said. “So you’d go home, (and) you couldn’t completely get undressed. You couldn’t go to bed. You might take your gun belt off, take your shirt off, get in your recliner … and wait for the phone to ring.”
At that time, none of the deputies were dedicated investigators.
“I worked for Sheriff (Dolph Bryan) at that time, and he wanted everybody to know everything,” Phelps said. “So when you were working for him, you answered to wrecks, you answered to warrant calls, you answered to burglaries and you figured out how to work it. So times have changed, but it’s changed for the better.”
Today, the department has four dedicated investigators and three narcotics officers who can assist on major cases. Investigators handle between 550 and 600 felony cases each year, taking on 20 to 25 new cases per month, Phelps said.
“Felony cases … take time,” he said. “It’s not anything easy because you’re chasing down witnesses, you’re chasing down suspects and all of the above.”
That workload carries over into the jail division, which employs 30 correctional officers and books roughly 1,000 inmates each year. The facility houses an average of 80 inmates but can hold up to 120, with at least 12 beds reserved for SPD at all times.
Transport officers, responsible for moving inmates for court orders, medical visits and other needs, log about 3,000 miles per month, Phelps said.
Department upgrades
Along with staffing and workload insight, Phelps highlighted several initiatives and upgrades planned for the department.
Among them is the formation of a Special Response Team, which will handle high-risk situations including serving warrants and responding to barricaded suspects, situations SPD’s SWAT team and Mississippi Highway Patrol currently assist in. Eight deputies are in training for the team and will continue serving in their regular roles, with the team activated on an as-needed basis, Phelps said.
Phelps also pointed to the department’s new chaplain program, established in January, as one of OCSO’s key accomplishments. The program now includes 20 chaplains who provide support to deputies dealing with traumatic situations.
“These men and women, what they see on a daily basis, they need somebody to talk to,” Phelps said. “… There’s a lot of bad things that go on from car accidents, to shootings and believe it or not, suicide. … It just breaks my heart. … And the officers that have to work (those), it’s unreal.”
The department is also preparing to establish an honor guard, create a second litter crew for roadside cleanup and recently purchased a drone that will assist in searches for missing persons and stolen property.
Those changes, combined with technological upgrades, are helping modernize the department, Phelps said. Among those upgrades, the department has installed in-car cameras and computers in every patrol vehicle through a 365Labs equipment overhaul, added 10 cameras across the county with plans for 10 more this year and transitioned to the Mississippi Wireless Information Network radio system which helped solve communication lapses with deputies traveling to Maben and Sturgis.
“It’s a big step for us,” Phelps said. “Times are changing, and they’re changing fast, and we’ve got to stay on top of it.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
