Grant will help put more deputies out on patrol

BENTON -- Sheriff's deputies in Scott County will spend more time out on patrol thanks to a state grant.

Capt. Kenneth Kinder of the Scott County Sheriff's Department advised county commissioners during their regular meeting Tuesday that the Department was approved for a grant of $28,592.54 from the Missouri Department of Public Safety's 2014 Deputy Sheriff Salary Supplementation Fund.

"It's not for new hires," Kinder explained. "It's to supplement the salaries of the ones already on the payroll as of the first of the year."

Kinder said the grant works out to about $100 per month for each deputy.

"It's not a raise," he said. "They actually have to put in additional hours to get the money but it is an opportunity for them to bring in more income."

Kinder said the grant's funding comes from money collected for serving civil documents.

"For every civil paper served in the state of Missouri, $20 goes to the state of Missouri and is placed in a central repository," he said. "That money is held by the state to be reissued to the sheriff's offices to supplement deputy salaries."

The grant requires "no matching funds at all," according to Kinder, and "allows us to put deputies into cars, on the street into communities that don't have full-time law enforcement."

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