DARLINGTON – A Lafayette County Law Enforcement Committee meeting was held Oct. 17 at 6:00 p.m. at the Sheriff’s Office Conference Room.
Sheriff Reg Gill said, “You are aware of the last Amish crash we just had, where a three-year-old Amish child was killed. It was only a quarter mile from where an Amish fatality happened in June. We got a lot of calls and a lot of concern. I’ve had different people reaching out saying what we could do differently.”
Gill continued, “Sergeant Morrissey and I went to Bylers residence on Co. Z and met with a group of elders. Bylers builds buggies and we had talked to him before about different lights on the buggies. He had set up a buggy with the lights we suggested. We asked him to use amber strobe lights on the top. The strobe has a real sharp blink. We met with that group and mostly all in agreement that it’s time to do something. It’s not just the Amish that lose someone in a crash, the people hitting the buggies have to live with that and also the impact it has on our first responders. The Amish understand that and don’t want to put people through that either. They do look at things different – God’s will.
Gill wrapped up, “It was a very good meeting, but they were quick to say there would be push back within their group. There are some that resist change. We got a call from the elders and wanted to schedule another meeting Oct. 27 and there will be actual Bishops present. I think we’re going to start to see a difference around here.
Gill related that on the last accident they found the battery intact and hooked it up to the remaining lights that weren’t damaged and they were operational. Whether they were on we won’t know. The young man that was driving the truck said all he saw before contact was the orange triangle and no lights.
At this point members of the committee related their experiences with seeing buggies with no lights until they see or hear another vehicle coming.
Gill said, “It was suggested that we start writing tickets, but generally it’s hard for our guys, because we never see them with their lights off.”
The Republican Journal asked if it’s a state law that buggies have to have flashing lights?
Gill answered, “It is a state law, but there is an ‘religious beliefs’ exemption listed.
In Sheriff’s business:
•An Emergency Response Team (ERT) was purchased last year to replace an old bus the Sheriff’s Department had been using for emergency response. Gill asked the committee for approval to upfitt the van to make it fully operational. A price to install seating, storage, equipment, radio, lighting, etc. is at $41,222. The item is already on the cost improvement project (CIP) list for 2024.
•Budget – the budget went well. This is the first budget that Administrative Assistant Lisa Schultz has worked on and the Finance Dept. said it was going forward.
•Inmates – currently six inmates in Iowa County, nineteen in Lafayette County. The month of Sept. the county had between eight and six inmates housed at Iowa County and the monthly cost was $11,340.
•The Sheriff’s Department has been located in half of the bottom floor of the County Courthouse. With other departments moving around, the Sheriff’s Dept. now has the entire bottom floor of the courthouse. Gill said they have been moving offices around, installing cameras and are nearly complete with the occupation.
•Agreed with a proposed statement of work for Lafayette County Sheriff’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliance consulting work from JPSC in the amount of $25,000. This is on the CIP for 2024. This works with the Spillman system that the sheriff’s system utilizes.
Criminal Justice Information Services is a compliance standard that regulates data security and privacy in local, state, and federal law enforcement. CJIS collects and analyzes criminal justice information (CJI) from law enforcement centers around the country and provides a centralized database to store and access CJI.
•Approve the Sept. bills in the amount of $93,724.
