By Sheriff David Kramer
Recently, there have been conversations on social media regarding a program that my patrol sergeant introduced to the patrol deputies of the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office. The program, referred to as “Top Cop,” was intended to directly encourage proactive policing, criminal interdiction and involvement with the community by the deputies. An additional benefit was building deputy camaraderie, increasing productivity and positive engagement with the public.
The concept is for a deputy to receive recognition for the most DUI (driving under the influence) arrests and for the highest number of drug related arrests. The Top Cop award will be given to a deputy taking into account those statistics as well as their community involvement, involvement with law enforcement related programs or activities and their overall productivity.
In other words, it would be a deputy who contributes most positively to our community. The award for being our “Top Cop” would be the pride in being recognized for doing a exceptional job and a priority pick for the upcoming year’s schedule.
There was never a mention of any type of “quota” or citations. Specific traffic enforcement (other than DUIs) were never a criteria and absolutely no consideration was ever given to any financial or budgetary benefit.
Unfortunately, there has been negative discussions started over this by persons representing themselves as looking out for the good of the community, without having all the information about the program. I believe that positive encouragement for deputies to make our roads safer, taking dangerous drugs off our streets, and interact positively with our community benefits Boundary County.
Publisher’s Note: Sheriff Kramer, when a Top Cop award is bestowed, I encourage you to get a photo of the deputy and issue a press release to local media. Boundary County has long been blessed with outstanding law enforcement personnel, starting from the top, and they get far too little acknowledgement or thanks for all they do on our behalf. ~ Mike Weland
I think this is an excellent program that can prove to be very beneficial to our community.