The Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office is doing some shuffling around in an attempt to avoid laying off detention center staff following the April flooding that closed the Archuleta County Detention Center and sent inmates to La Plata County for housing.
According to Sheriff Rich Valdez, the department is currently not filling vacant detention officer positions and is using detention officers to fill other vacant roles within the department in order to avoid layoffs.
“We’re trying not to cut people,” he said in a Wednesday interview with SUN staff.
For example, Valdez said a detention officer who is certified is now serving as a patrol deputy, another is serving as a fraud investigator and another is filling an administrative role within the department’s front office, rather than laying off detention officers and hiring new staff elsewhere in the department.
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