Douglas County will bring on at least five new Sheriff's deputies with a federal grant encouraging law enforcement to hire veterans.
The Douglas County Board unanimously approved the $425,000 COPS grant at Tuesday’s meeting. Sheriff Tim Dunning says the grant will help address his department’s staffing needs. “We haven’t hired in over four years, so we’ve been working very under staffed, cutting off some areas, we’ve cut off the number of people we have working in narcotics, we’ve cut off the number of people we have working the road, we’ve cut off the number of people we had working in the courts.”
Dunning says the Sheriff's Department is short 11 deputies.
Interviews are underway to fill the other six positions. Funding for those jobs is in Douglas County’s budget.