DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has filled open positions after being down more than a dozen deputy sheriffs last year.
“When I took over as sheriff in January of ’19, we were 16 deputy sheriffs down,” says Sheriff Rob Streck, now starting 2020 fully staffed with deputy sheriffs.
Three were sworn in during a special ceremony Tuesday eager to tackle the persistent problems in the community.
“We still have a substance abuse crisis in our community,” says Streck. “Of course we’ll keep working on elder fraud and scams. Mental health is a huge subject.”
Those were all goals he and his team planned to work on in 2019. While they made progress, they were railroaded by tragedy.
“2019 — we came in with a lot of goals. We got diverted several times,” admits Streck.
“It went from the hate group rally and then it just kept going and going,” Streck describes. “From the tornadoes to the mass shooting.”
In 2019, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office suffered a loss of its own. A deputy unexpectedly died of a medical condition in the middle of the night.
Now, the new year brings a new start in serving the county.
“If you want to serve your community, I think you saw that in 2019 — this is a pretty great way to serve your community,” says Streck.
The sheriff is still making a push to hire, looking for dispatchers, records clerks, and corrections officers.
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