Pasco Sheriff Phasing Out Pretrial Unit

Sheriff Bob White announced today he will phase out a unit that tracks court defendants before trials and reassign the unit's four deputies to other duties.

As of Monday, the Pasco Sheriff's Office will no longer accept court orders to supervise defendants released from jails on their own recognizance as they wait for trial, White said.

Pasco deputies in the pretrial services unit had been keeping tabs on 659 defendants on supervised ROR as of December 2008, according to Sheriff's Office statistics. Another 399 defendants were unsupervised ROR that month.

"These are difficult times and difficult decisions have to be made," White said, referring to his efforts to rein in Sheriff's Office spending as the county grapples with tight budgets. In recent months, White has disbanded the Sheriff's Office community policing unit and grounded the air unit.

The news White delivered about the end of the supervised ROR unit during Friday's Pasco County Public Safety Coordinating Council meeting did not sit well with Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe and County Court Judge William G. Sestak.

"I think you're going to get jammed up at the jails, sheriff," Sestak commented. In response, Sheriff's Office officials and Bryan Tunnell, vice president of the Florida Surety Agents Association, a bail bond industry group, said that might not happen.

Pasco jails already are 25 percent over capacity as of today, Sgt. Neal Berry of the Sheriff's Office reported during Friday's meeting. Of the jail's 1,263 inmates 248 are in temporary housing, he said.
Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.