Election Q&A - Perry County sheriff

CANDIDATE PROFILES

Gary J. Schaaf

Age: 47

Immediate family: Wife Tamara; children, Amanda, Brian, Aaron.

Party: Republican

Occupation: Perry County Sheriff

Religious affiliation: Catholic

Joseph McAtee

Age: 46

Immediate family: Wife Sherry; three sons, Joe, 23, Josh, 17 and Jeremiah, 15.

Party: Democrat

Occupation: Perry County deputy sheriff, on reserve status for the duration of the election and currently working construction.

Other affiliations: Retired member of the Perryville Perry County Rural Fire Department.

What are your plans to combat methamphetamine production and use?

Schaaf: My future plans are similar to my current plans. We were able to get a new officer through MoSMART funding who is primarily used for drug enforcement. That really increased our efforts over the last 10 months. We have more than doubled our drug arrests this year, and last year was already a high mark for us. We're still involved in the SEMO Drug Task Force. I've been involved since its inception in 1990. We work closely with agents from the task force, and now we have a dedicated police officer doing drug enforcement. He's learned a lot from them and works with them closely. We've increased our intelligence and intervention operations of the entire task force. We have been really successful catching a number of people who have been stealing anhydrous ammonia, taking it somewhere else and making meth. We work real closely with stores in the area. If somebody would buy a lot of supplies, they make notes about who they are and let us know.

McAtee: I intend to be doing what we are doing. Our department has quite a good reputation for fighting meth labs. My plan is to fight to increase the number of officers on the street to continue to combat the meth problem.

What is the best way to work with situations involving domestic violence?

Schaaf: Domestic violence is probably one of the most dangerous situations a law enforcement officer can get involved in. We take a backup; we may need it. We have a fairly pro-arrest policy. If we can see evidence of actual physical injury, we do make an arrest of the aggressor. That's one of the things we can do; the state will pick up the charges.

McAtee: My approach has always been separation, a cooling-off period with recommendation for counseling and, if need be, remove one of the subjects from the home. If there has been actual physical violence, somebody absolutely has to go to jail and be charged for it. I believe very strongly in intervention and understanding. It's not always easy for two people to live together. They have to be more tolerant and understanding of each another's position in life and take the time to cool down and not say things they will later regret, to walk away from a situation and come back later when they can sit down with cooler heads and discuss problems and work out a reasonable situation. Counseling is a big recommendation in my opinion.

Explain your plans regarding staffing and working within the sheriff's budget. How do you plan to schedule road patrols?

Schaaf: We have been fortunate over the last several years. We have been able to increase personnel slightly as far as patrol is concerned. We used to be stretching to have one person on every shift 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Several times on any given week we have two officers on evenings and midnights. We have increased that part. We would like to increase their salaries so I can keep good, qualified people once we get them on board. I would also like to increase the number of people available for scheduling. I would like to have two, if not three on. We have 500 square miles in Perry County to patrol. There are hundreds of miles of federal highway and county roads to patrol. The majority of our population lives outside Perryville, which makes them our concern primarily. Sometimes two deputies are not enough to have an acceptable quick response. With two officers on opposite ends of the county, it might be 20 minutes or more before we can get to an emergency call.

McAtee: This is a difficult situation. Having been a road officer in the department, we have always had a problem with staffing. There is a relatively low number of officers in the department. We need more officers and better salaries. Some minor restructuring in the department, more patrolmen on the street, on staff each shift and pretty much leave things the way they are. No real major changes need to take place. We have a strong department and good camaraderie among officers.

What are the county's biggest needs in law enforcement?

Schaaf: More staffing would really help. I've been fortunate in getting equipment. We do have night vision goggles, thermal imaging equipment. A couple of years ago, I went to Taser instructor school in St. Peters, Mo., and became a certified Taser instructor. All my personnel are qualified to use a Taser. It enhances their safety as well as the suspect's safety. Also I have just gone to school in Jefferson city for computer voice stress analysis system to help in investigations. We try to have working car cameras in every patrol vehicle so we can document what happens, who said what and, if it does go to court, we can disprove a lot of things being said and show what did occur. I'm looking for ways to be more efficient and do a better job protecting our officers and keeping them out of court as much as we can. We need more people. It used to be burglaries were the biggest issue; however, over the last couple of years that has really declined. We had 77 in Perry County in 1992, we reduced it by 50 percent since I took office. This year we're really running slow -- 11 or 12. I like to think a lot has to do with the fact that we are doing better with drug enforcement. The numbers went up on drug enforcement and the numbers on burglary went down. We have an active traffic enforcement as well. We don't stretch for reasons to stop people, but I do allow officers who see something to take action and correct it.

McAtee: Drug enforcement and underage drinking are two of the major concerns and have been for several years in Perry County. Burglary is at the top of my personal list. We need more patrol, more officers on the street. The presence of more officers is definitely going to curb a great deal of crimes. The meth problem typically generates a burglary problem because of the fertilizer being burglarized to access anhydrous ammonia to make meth. The presence of a patrol car deters the vast majority of crime.

What are your plans for education and training?

Schaaf: We try to train the best we can, not only to be safe when out on patrol but also to better perform law enforcement functions. We train on firearms qualifications several times a year. I send the guys to a railroad-sponsored class on how to deal with railroad derailments and give them as much as I can for personal safety and safety of other people. We try to train to be the best investigators and be the most thorough and safest people we can be.

McAtee: I would continue with the minimum requirements as well as more extensive in-house guidelines, my own personal thoughts on certain topics, and situations within the department. Education is of foremost importance in law enforcement.