The Bedford County Sheriff's Office, under the direction of Sheriff Mike Brown, has long been known as a progressive and well-equipped department by many surrounding jurisdictions.

In 1998, Bedford County was one of the first counties in the state to have full-time deputies in our high schools. Through grants from the Office of Justice and Juvenile Delinquency Prevention, a BCSO School Resource Officer program was developed. Now, every middle school and high school in Bedford County is staffed with a certified, full-time deputy who is available before, during and after school hours, to students, their parents, teachers and administrators.

BCSO was also one of the first in the area to equip cruisers with Mobile Data Terminals for immediate information gathering and communication directly with the dispatch center.

To enhance protection of citizens as well as the officer, funding was obtained for In-Car Cameras, now in every road cruiser. Traffic stops, pursuits and numerous incidents are recorded during the deputy's tour of duty taped and cataloged for later review if necessary.

How does BCSO do all this? It all sounds so expensive! You're right, it is very expensive and most agencies can not afford to purchase such equipment out of their yearly budget.

What many citizens are not aware of is; BCSO is able to obtain this state-of-art equipment through state and federal grants which are applied for, and handled by a full-time BCSO staff member. In 2006, BCSO received over $300,000 in grants, which included equipment, overtime funds for deputies, records management hardware, educational programs schools and bullet proof vests.

Here is a short summary of grants received by BCSO in 2006:

DMV – Land/Water DUI Suppression to be used for special enforcement targeting drunk drivers on Bedford County roads and drunk boaters on Smith Mountain Lake. BCSO boat patrol members are also asked to assist Game Wardens on their boats. These DMV grant funds are used to pay BCSO deputy salaries while on these special assignments.

DMV – BCSO qualifies special event funding through DMV, such as holiday enforcement. BCSO participated in the Memorial Day Strike Force which was a state-wide initiative for DUI enforcement during the long holiday weekend.

Central VA Highway Transportation Board – BCSO is a member of this regional effort to enforce safe driving, seatbelt usage and proper child safety seat installation. Multi-jurisdictional events are held to help communities on a regional basis. BCSO’s certified child safety seat installers and inspectors will work with Bedford City PD, Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, Lynchburg City PD, and others in different locations to provide optimal staffing for the best possible service to the citizens throughout the region.

Bullet Proof Vests – Officer protection is of the utmost importance to BCSO. However, supplying all road officers with bullet proof vests can be an extremely costly endeavor. The Bureau of Justice Assistance understands this hardship and every year offers competitive funding opportunities to aid agencies handle the high cost of vests. What most people don’t realize is, bullet proof vests have a “shelf life” and need to be replaced at least every 5 years, preferably every 4 years for optimal officer protection. Every BCSO deputy is equipped with a bullet proof vest, worn under their uniform.

The US Department of Justice funds many completive initiatives for law enforcement.

The JAG grant was awarded to BCSO for summons printers in the police vehicles, to be used in conjunction with the Mobil Data Terminals. BCSO was one of two counties chosen in the state to test this new method of issuing summonses while making traffic stops. This program will be going state wide in 2007 and 2008.

The G.R.E.A.T. Program (Gang Resistance Education And Training) has become an extremely popular educational program throughout the state of Virginia. BCSO has been teaching this self-esteem boosting, character building program since 2005 and have enjoyed the positive reaction from students and their teachers and parents too. G.R.E.A.T. is a violence prevention curriculum and a life-skills competency program designed to provide students with the skills they need to avoid gang pressure and youth violence. Funding has been received in 2006 for use over the next 3 years to continue to promote the program in middle and high schools, further plans to include the elementary schools. Planned for summer is GREAT COPS Camp where kids spend a week of team building, physical endurance training to build self confidence and expand communications skills. Deputies are certified as G.R.E.A.T. instructors and Youth Councilors are also utilized during the camp, who go through a week long training before the camp begins. This program is designed to encourage positive relationships between the community, parents, schools and law enforcement and most importantly, strengthen the self-esteem of Bedford’s youth so they can more easily stand up to peer pressure and not fall victim to gang association and violence.

C-SORT – Child Sex Offender Registration and Tracking – The state of Virginia has made great strides in enforcing the registration of sex offenders. However, local law enforcement must rely upon the Virginia State Police Sex Offender Registry for information regarding convicted sex offenders. Access to this information is limited, at best, as it can only be accessed via the Internet. Thus, there is no readily available information regarding convicted sex offenders to officers in the field. In the event of a missing child or any other matter regarding a child, sheriff’s personnel have no readily available information regarding convicted sex offenders who may reside in the area of the incident. This funding enables the Sheriff’s office to increase the accountability of convicted sex offenders through regular and consistent monitoring of sex offenders via personal visits by law enforcement. All convicted offenders residing in Bedford County and City will be identified, verified that they are properly registered, will be entered into BCSO’s database that includes information regarding their appearance, updated photographs, employment, vehicle identification, family history, current legal status, etc. It is anticipated that the increased accountability placed upon the convicted sex offenders will prevent crime through their reduced involvement in criminal activity as well as reduce sex offender recidivism due to the projects increased supervision of this class of criminal. BCSO's C-SORT unit is under the supervision of Chief Gary Reynolds, Retd., Special Assistant to the Sheriff.

Department of Homeland Security recently awarded BCSO with a sizable, 100% funded grant that is being utilized for the Reverse 911 project. Reverse 911 allows public safety officials to send recorded message via telephone to thousands of homes in the even t of an emergency or significant event; i.e. – chemical spill, forest fire, severe weather alerts, sexual offender or predator alerts, missing persons alert, etc. Testing is currently in process now and the system will be fully functional by early 2007.

The 2007/2008 Grant year has just begun. Updates will be announced as grants are awarded.

Submitted by Robin Sundquist, BCSO Grant Writer