Earlier this summer, the Post asked our readers what issues you wanted to hear candidates in contested races address leading up to the Nov. 5. election.
Based on that feedback, we developed a five-item questionnaire centering the issues most important to residents across Johnson County.
Each day this week, we’ll publish the candidates’ responses to one question. Read the candidates’ responses to the previous question about the budget, collaboration and collegiality and officer-involved shootings.
Today, we’re publishing candidates’ responses to the following question:
The sheriff’s office in recent years has dealt with the challenge of trying to fill dozens of vacant positions and also retain staff. To deal with these shortfalls, the sheriff’s office has had to sometimes pay current staff overtime. The sheriff’s office also routinely helps municipal police departments that are also short-staffed, stretching county resources even further. Readers say they want to know what your plans are for adequately staffing the sheriff’s department and paying sheriff’s office employees competitive salaries?
Below are the answers the Post received from candidates on the issue:
Byron Roberson (Democratic)
To hire and retain the best staff, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office needs a change in culture that only I can provide. As a police chief I have learned from my predecessors like former
Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass, former Lenexa Police Chief Ellen Hanson, former Leawood Police Chief Steve Cox, and many others. From them, I learned how to build a culture of excellence within a law enforcement office. My opponent learned from Calvin Hayden. As Sheriff, I will bring a fresh approach to leadership and build a sheriff’s office that people can be proud of.
The Sheriff’s Office has attracted new staff members over the last couple of years due to raising their long overdue pay for deputies. But they have not done a good job at retaining good
employees over time. You must value those you already have doing the job, in order to keep the talent that makes an organization great. Salary and benefits are critically important, but culture is arguably just as important. People want to feel valued by the organization. Leaders achieve this by communicating their vision and strategy of how they intend to keep good workers in the organization as well as how they intend to attract new ones.
Doug Bedford (Republican)
In 2023 the Sheriff’s Office was provided with a significant pay increase for sworn (deputized) staff. This increase for first responders has helped considerably in the retention of staff. Regarding pay, as Sheriff I will continue to ensure our deputies remain toward the top of Johnson County in pay equity in comparison to other county agencies. Another significant means to limit overtime within the agency is to do a staffing analysis, ensuring deputies are working in the correct location to minimize situations where the agency might be “short-
staffed”. This can also be accomplished be evaluating the inmate population in the Detention Centers, to determine if inmate housing areas can be consolidated to reduce staffing shortages in the jails.
The role of the Sheriff’s Office is to maintain the detention centers, serve civil process paperwork, but to also be supportive of all city police agencies to ensure the health and safety of our county citizens. That is a significant reason to maintain sworn staff in the Sheriff’s Office Detention Centers, to provide a critical incident response unit designed to assist Johnson County city police agencies in a time of need.
Coming up:
Tomorrow we will publish the candidates’ responses to the following question:
Readers express alarm over the continued frequency of drug-related crimes, some prominent cases of which have involved teenagers in drug deals that have ended in violence. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office currently oversees a multi-jurisdictional task force meant specifically to go after the sale and use of illegal drugs in northeast Kansas. But there have been concerns that that task force is not as effective or as active as it could be. If elected, what would be your approach to investigating illegal drugs? How, if at all, would you employ the current task force model?
