By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett says laws must be changed to reduce repeat offenders.
Puett illustrates his point by recalling a recent arrest by his deputies.
“We had deputies in south county, caught a guy in the act of a burglary who was in a stolen car and had 19, 19, outstanding felony warrants for robbery, burglary, and all kinds of stuff, because he’d been getting arrested and then, he’d turn around and get released and go out and commit more crimes,” Puett tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
Puett says the 19 outstanding felony warrants were from other jurisdictions, not Buchanan County. Puett says that large number of outstanding warrants illustrates that far too often criminals don’t have to pay the consequences of their crimes.
“If they’re selling drugs or doing violence, whatever, they’re making a choice,” Puett says. “They want to be involved in that activity and they’re purposely doing that activity. So, if they’re doing that and they’re victimizing our citizens, then, they should be held accountable. They should be held to task.”
Another problem, according to Puett, is a rise in mental illness. Puett says treating the mentally ill needs to become more of a priority for law enforcement. Puett says it is a problem affecting all of Missouri.
“Typically, any one day, there are 280, plus people incarcerated in the state of Missouri, in county jails, that should be in the custody of the Department of Mental Health, but they’re waiting on what they call a bed date,” Puett says.
A bed date is established by the Department of Mental Health, but the department has had difficulty establishing bed dates, due to a shortage both of beds and the staff to take care of more mentally ill patients.
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