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Staffing shortage forces Ga. deputies to work up to 80 hours a week

“We’re doing the best we can, and we are doing far and beyond what we can,” a deputy said

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Photo/Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page

By Anne Berleant

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — Deputies in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office are leaving in droves, and loyalty is the only thing holding the sheriff’s office together, Sheriff Tim Pounds told Fox & Friends on Tuesday.

The department lost 59 deputies due to conditions following the pandemic as well as officers in search of better pay. However, deputies, Pounds said, are pulling nearly 80-hour work weeks to make up the difference.

“They work diligently, just as hard as they can week by week, by week,” Pounds said. "They know a light is going to come, we just don’t know when that light is going to come." 

To address the staffing shortage, the sheriff’s office is moving forward with 77 applications from a two-day agency job fair.

“Hopefully, like the sheriff was saying, we can get some of these people in this office and take the stress off of these frontline workers that have been really giving their all,” Lt. Col. Tavarreus Pounds, the sheriff’s nephew, said.

While command staff aren’t permitted to work overtime, Sheriff Pounds has told them to occasionally work on the street to give the deputies a break.

“I’ve seen people pull 72 hours of overtime in a pay period,” Lt. Col. Pounds told 11 Alive. “We’re doing the best we can, and we are doing far and beyond what we can.”

NEXT: Find out what police are not saying when they leave

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