Sheriff tells Metropolitan Crime Commission the department is erasing a large budget deficit he inherited, while maintaining quick response times to calls for service and with more officers on the streets

Sheriff James Pohlmann with Rafael Goyeneche III, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.in New Orleans

Sheriff Pohlmann speaking to Crime Commission board members at a luncheon.

Sheriff James Pohlmann told the prestigious Metropolitan Crime Commission in New Orleans the department is erasing a large budget deficit he inherited, while still maintaining quick response times to calls for service and while upgrading the hiring process.

Rafael Goyeneche III, President of the 62-year-old citizens’ organization dedicated to exposing public corruption and reducing crime in the area, asked Sheriff Pohlmann to speak about the state of the Sheriff’s Office.

The non-profit group is known as a public watchdog and through its programs the MCC holds public officials and employees accountable for corrupt, unethical, and wasteful practices as well as working to enhance the safety of the community. The organization also conducts independent and objective research to raise the level of accountability and efficiency in the criminal justice system.

Addressing about 60 members of the Crime Commission board on Oct. 21 at its monthly luncheon, Sheriff Pohlmann said, “We had big challenges’’ when he took office July 1, 2012. He said he was inheriting a $4.2 million budget deficit and needed to restructure rank in the department.

After reducing the number of employees from 315 to less than 260, the sheriff said, and cutting other expenses the Sheriff’s Office still had a deficit and he had to borrow money on anticipated revenue.

But in April 2013 the department won voter approval of a property tax increase and for the first time he doesn’t anticipate having to borrow any money, the sheriff said.

Now, the department has about 280 employees and a hiring process that includes a board of veteran officers to review candidates and make recommendations. “We are getting good quality applicants,’’ he said.

Using a pool of money from FEMA, along with a donation of land along Paris Road from the Meraux Foundation, the Sheriff’s Office is building three new sub-stations at the entrances to St. Bernard at no cost to parish residents and they are expected to aid crime prevention.

Increased training programs for deputies have been implemented, the sheriff said, and through grants the department has been successful in obtaining money used to get its first mobile emergency command post, a patrol boat big enough to be used on the Mississippi River and a deep-water truck that can be used for evacuating residents in a rain storm event.

Prison trusty work crews have been used in public projects with other agencies to help clean up highways and cut trees along canals to improve drainage and even help with levee maintenance, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

The sheriff also acknowledged that like elsewhere in the nation, drug abuse – particularly a surge in heroin use being seen throughout many areas – remains a problem and is the leading cause of property crimes. Addicts steal to get money to feed their habit, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

“If you could fix the drug problem you fix the crime problem,’’ he said.

In answer to a board member’s question about the effect on crime in St. Bernard because of sharing borders with New Orleans, Sheriff Pohlmann acknowledged more crime is being committed in the parish by outsiders.

“Criminals don’t care about a boundary,’’ he said.

Fortunately there are few instances of violent crime and it has been more than a year since the parish experienced a murder, he said.

The sheriff stressed he believes in drug abuse resistance programs in schools starting with very young students. He told the MCC board members that spending money on education on the front end to prevent kids from getting hooked on drugs would be better than paying the costs of incarceration as well as drugs’ toll on society in general once children have grown up dependent on them.

“We know you can’t arrest your way out of the drug problem,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said. Education and rehabilitation treatment programs are the best chance at a solution, he said.

But he firmly believes drug-dealers must be sent to prison, Sheriff Pohlmann said, and also said he is against proposals to legalize marijuana because he feels that can only increase its use.