To the editor:

Regarding slashing the sheriff’s budget — may I ask a few questions?

If the Island County commissioners cut more deputies from the department, who is going to come when there is a serious or fatal accident on one of our roads and the only available deputy is answering a home invasion call? How safe will that lone deputy be when he answers a domestic violence call — knowing that he has no backup and those calls are potentially the deadliest ones?

Who will prevent burglaries, muggings, home invasions, drunk driving, assaults, physical and/or mental and sexual abuses, if we don’t have the visible presence of our law enforcement officers helping to remind people of their responsibilities?

We have had four incidents in the Puget Sound area since Halloween in which bad guys have gunned down law enforcement personnel. In each of those situations, those cops were in areas where the ratio of police to citizens is considerably higher than that which we have here in Island County. How much more vulnerable are our deputies now? How much more vulnerable will they be with fewer of them on duty?

Some items in the county budget are absolute essentials and some are niceties. How will you react when you have an emergency and there is no available deputy to come to your aid? Our deputies are essential.

Jean Goodfellow

Clinton