Sheriff sues county over lack of law enforcement funding

In the lawsuit, filed Monday in Rutherford County Circuit Court, Sheriff Truman Jones asks for approximately $9 million to hire 94 new sheriff’s department employees and 49 jail workers. The money also would be used to purchase new vehicles and other equipment.

“Growth has put a tremendous burden on our staff,” Jones said. “My responsibility is to give them the support they need and give the citizens of this county enough people to make them safe.”

Jones says that growth in suburban Nashville county has resulted in a need for more patrol officers, detectives, school resource officers and warrants division officers. Additional employees also are needed to efficiently handle emergency calls, he said.

To fund the proposal, a tax levy increasing the property tax rate by about 30 cents would have to be adopted by the county commission.

The terms of the lawsuit are identical to a request made earlier this year by Jones, who later offered a compromise proposal of $5.5 million to pay for 56 sheriff’s department and 12 jail employees. That would have meant a tax hike of only 16 or 17 cents, Jones said, and would have saved the county money by avoiding legal fees associated with his lawsuit.

“Obviously, they did not want to take our recommendations,” he said.

The matter was barely touched on during the commission’s budget proceedings Monday.

“At this point it was just a matter of letting him go ahead and do it,” Commissioner Bob Bullen said. “He’s a very expensive sheriff. He’s a good sheriff.”