Since the 28E agreement for the Greene County Sheriff’s Office to provide temporary law enforcement coverage in the City of Jefferson has been in effect, there has not been any coverage needed yet.

Jefferson Police Chief Mark Clouse says the agreement started October 1st and this weekend will be the first time that a deputy will cover one of his officer’s open shifts. He points out he will be able to cover the rest of the shifts for the month internally through overtime pay. Clouse reminds residents that the Sheriff’s Office will provide most services, with the exception of animal-related calls, unless an animal bit a human.

As for November, Clouse says he will get Officer Mark Wolterman back from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, bringing his department to four officers, including himself. After Wolterman undergoes some field training, Clouse doesn’t believe a deputy will be needed for coverage that month.

“At that point, he (Wolterman) would be put into duty rotation, which would make that number four officers again, which is what is required to cover 24/7 coverage. So barring an injury, an illness, or something like that, I think Jefferson officers will be able to cover all of the spots.”

Additionally, the 28E agreement outlines benchmarks for the police department to achieve in good faith towards rebuilding its number of officers. The first benchmark is conducting two interviews for at least two officer positions by October 30th. Clouse says they will achieve that goal by this weekend.

“Yeah we’ve got some people that we’re looking at. We’ve got some apps still slowly trickling in here that we’re looking through. So as I said in the beginning, I don’t anticipate that to be an extreme issue meeting those timelines.”

The agreement is in place for one year and will expire on September 30, 2021.