As many of you know, over the last 15 years or so, many police departments have started a "take home" program, which allows their officers to drive their police cars home. The thought behind this concept is that having more police cars in the community serve as a crime deterrent. This makes sense to me. Put a cop car on every corner and then criminals are less likely to commit crime.

I have always supported this program; however, as with any program, there have to be rules or the programs will eventually start to be abused. One rule that is typically put in place, is that police officers participating in the program must live in the jurisdiction where they work. This ensures deterrence is actually taking place in the jurisdiction where taxpayers are paying for police services. Why should the taxpayers in Denver pay for wear and tear on a vehicle, plus all fuel expenses for a vehicle that is being parked in Castle Rock. Again, this makes sense.

Recently, I became aware of a police "take home" program that is being abused. Here are the details:

Elbert County, is a rural county located southeast of Denver. Over the last couple years, the county commissioners have been fighting a constant struggle to meet all county expenses. Even though money in the county appears to be tight, there are a number of deputies that are allowed to drive their vehicles home, even though they do no live in Elbert County. This doesn't sound like to big of a deal; however, think about it for a minute. Elbert County is fairly large in size, so when you allow deputies to drive a patrol car to their homes, we are often talking about them driving hundreds of miles a day simply going to and from work. I know we are all smart enough to figure out who is paying all those fuel charges. That's right, we the taxpayers are paying. Each and every time they go to the gas station, those expenses are passed along to the residents of that jurisdiction. Doesn't seem right that Elbert County residents are paying all these expenses, yet no crime is deterred by those patrol cars as they are being parked in a totally different jurisdiction.

Here's the kicker when it comes to this problem in Elbert County. It isn't simply the deputies that are allowed to take sheriff's department vehicles home. They also allow the animal control officer (dog catcher) to drive a sheriff's department SUV (yes, with the lights, siren, and all other accouterments) to her house. I have not looked into this extensively; however, I can state for a fact that I know this animal control officer lives in Colorado Springs. I did a rough calculation and going from the extreme eastern edge of Colorado Springs to Kiowa is 41 miles one way. This means this animal control officer drives at least 80 miles per day going to and from work. Obviously, this is close to 400 miles per week. With the price of gas, this gets very expensive, very quickly. Especially when we are talking about the fact the animal control officer is not driving a hybrid vehicle, but an older SUV, which I am sure doesn't get great gas mileage.

This is a clear example of a police "take home" program that is being abused and you and I are paying for it. I am working to correct this wrong in Elbert County and ask that each of you hold our public servants accountable and ensure similar abuses are not occurring where you live.

To read my other thoughts, please visit my blog at: www.advice-smoke-and-mirrors.blogspot.com