In a state that doesn’t have a sales tax and a county with one of the lowest property tax rates in the country, Josephine County was reliant upon the sweet succor of shared timber harvest revenue from federal forests – an income stream that dried up over a decade ago only to be replaced with what amounts to a special government subsidy. Which is now also bled dry, leaving some areas with as much as 65% of their operating budget gone like so many of their trees. For Josephine County, this means well over 60% of their sheriff’s deputies being laid off, and local law enforcement taking the form of just one or two officers working a few daytime hours. It’s such a bad scene that when the sheriff laid it all out on his website he literally recommended people “consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services.”
Crooks are getting the message that it’s open season. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reported last March that after the cuts were made, crime rates skyrocketed, with burglaries up 45% in just a year, and prosecutions down an almost equal amount. A local merchant claims there is “anarchy in the alleys.”
As for the good people of Josephine County? Well, the volunteer CSI team may sound crazy to many of us, but for them it’s just another job to do. They’ve already formed their own organized public action and patrol groups to take law enforcement into their own hands. Securing Our Safety has a number of local businesses as sponsors and forms committees to search for solutions to crime-related issues, while Citizens Against Crime has armed patrols cruising the main streets and back roads. Why wouldn’t they take on the crime scene aspect of things?