QuickTake:

Lane County officials are mapping out strategies for outreach to the public as they look for potential additional funding for the sheriff's office. Voters are unlikely to decide any proposals until 2027 at the earliest.

Lane County sheriff’s deputies are stretched thin.

On any given shift, three deputies and a sergeant are on duty, patrolling a territory that stretches over more than 4,600 square miles, from remote mountain campgrounds to the coast.

A call can be an hour’s drive away, or longer, meaning longer waits for crime victims, people in vehicle crashes or residents facing other emergencies. 

As people wait for a deputy to show up, they might complain about the service from the sheriff’s office.

Lane County Sheriff Carl Wilkerson sympathizes.

“What’s true is we’re underserving them, but we’re underserving everybody,” Wilkerson told county commissioners Wednesday, Dec. 3, in a briefing. “They just have a misconception that somebody else is getting better service than they are.”

Long-term revenue sources

In 2024, the Lane County Sheriff’s Office received more than 93,000 calls for help, including 278 death investigations and 1,544 crashes.

Lane County officials are looking for potential long-term ways to raise money for additional deputies and other staffers to bolster the law enforcement presence in the county and improve service. 

Wilkerson explained the needs in his department and outlined scenarios for services that could be funded with additional money.

The deliberative work eventually would require voter approval, whether for a special taxing district or payroll tax at some point in the future. The earliest any measure could go to voters is likely 2027, and county officials are far from determining what that would look like. 

A public safety funding task force has offered two recommendations for commissioners to consider. One would generate $27 million annually, with $22 million for increased rural patrol and another $5 million for more prosecutors in the district attorney’s office.

The other option is $55 million, which would include the $27 million and incorporate the $28 million for corrections that an existing county jail levy provides for the 411-bed facility. That would eliminate the need for future renewals of the jail levy, which started in 2013 and funds jail services and youth detention beds.

Lane County lags its peer counties and the state average in staffing, Wilkerson said. Overall, the county sheriff’s workforce of law enforcement officers — including patrol deputies, investigators, supervisors and others — is 79 sworn patrol staff.

Adjusted for population, that’s fewer than comparable counties that include Clackamas, Deschutes, Jackson, Marion and Washington, Wilkerson said. Lane County is the lowest of all those counties when measuring the rate of deputies per 1,000 people. Lane County has 0.2 deputies per 1,000 people, while the average of the other five counties is 0.43, Wilkerson said.

To reach that average, Lane County would need another 87 deputies, he said.

The task force recommendation would not add that much staffing to the sheriff’s office. A $22 million annual increase would provide another 64 deputies, 10 sergeants, two lieutenants and 20 support staff for functions like dispatch and records. 

That would aid response time, allow the sheriff’s office to increase traffic enforcement and do tasks like following up on property crimes and spending more time in rural areas, Wilkerson said.

That figure includes salaries and other costs like benefits, equipment and additional vehicles for patrol. 

In smaller communities like Lowell and Westfir, sheriff’s deputies are often the only law enforcement officers. Deputies also work in Lane County cities with municipal police departments — such as Eugene and Springfield — on countywide tasks. Those include serving court papers and restraining orders and issuing concealed handgun licenses. 

In their discussion, county commissioners said educating the public and outreach will be a key component before any proposal goes to voters. 

Commissioner Heather Buch suggested that the county consider a regional approach so that voters in each community would understand the increase in deputies that they would see in their region.

Commission Chair David Loveall said communication to communities is key.

“We need to explain it clearly so the public gets it,” Loveall said.

County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky said broader community outreach could start next summer, though getting a proposal on a 2026 ballot is unrealistic.

“We’re going to need the better part of 2026 to do that work,” he said.

Commissioners will hear Tuesday, Dec. 9, from the district attorney’s office about funding needs for prosecutors.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.