BOULDER -- Jefferson County Sheriff Craig Doolittle wants to add a deputy to his 12-officer force.

But that's just one of the reasons he's asking county voters to support a four-year, 15-mill safety levy request on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The levy would raise approximately $393,497 annually.

The price tag for an officer, plus equipment and a squad car ranges from $94,000 to $100,000, Doolittle said in a recent interview.

As the county's population grows, so does the number of calls to dispatch -- there were 4,453 in 2007.

If they continue at their current pace, this year's will exceed last year's calls by 1,500, he said.

These calls don't include Whitehall, which receives police coverage under its own contract with the sheriff's department, said Doolittle.

Besides paying for a new deputy, the proposed levy would also buy video cameras for all the squad cars. Only four vehicles are equipped with the cameras now.

"They (the cameras) protect the officers and public," Doolittle said. And they provide valuable documentation for testimony in court.

The levy would also pay for new squad cars, costing from $20,000 up to $28,000, for a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Doolittle has pushed to replace two patrol cars each year. He'd like to bump that up to three.

He wants to replace them at 150,000 miles, before the vehicles are sidelined with repair problems. That way, an officer would get a new vehicle about every four years, he said.

All 12 officers have a vehicle assigned to them, and eight reserve officers share three cars.

The department patrols a total of 1,656 square miles in the county.

The sheriff drives a 2001 Ford pickup, seized in a drug bust, and the undersheriff, a 1997 Crown Victoria, bought used from Weber County, Utah.

Another major ticket item is replacing a radio control station, repeaters and power supplies. The current equipment is 20 to 30 years old.

The new digital equipment would allow the department to better communicate with other sheriff's departments and with fire departments.

The levy also goes toward such nuts and bolts things as chaplain training, Global Positioning System units, funding the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program and search-and-rescue needs.

Doolittle said he's seen a $20,000 jump in his gas budget the past two years.

The levy would also help with such unglamorous items as plumbing.

Doolittle has regularly called plumbers to fix the detention center showers, which are 22 years old.

He'd like to just fix the showers once and for all by replacing them.

The impact of the levy would raise taxes on a $100,000 home by 8 cents per day, or $29.80 per year.

On a $200,000 home, the impact would be 16 cents per day, or $59.60 per year.

The levy would be just a portion of the sheriff's $1.8 million total annual budget.

If passed, it would release about $200,000 of payment in lieu of taxes funds the county commission allocated to the sheriff's department back into the general fund.

PILT is federal money meant to compensate counties for federal land that's not taxed.

Some critics say the levy is a backdoor way for the county to boost its general fund.

But County Commission Chairman Ken Weber disagrees.

The county can't rely on receiving PILT money, he said. So far, Congress has failed to reauthorize it this year, as well as Secure Rural Schools Act funds that the county has relied on.

"I think voters realize as the county population continues to grow, we receive more police calls," said Weber. "We need more patrols. We need more manpower."

If the levy is defeated, the county commission will have to look at budget cuts.

"This would help us increase the department," said Weber. "If it's defeated, for sure we won't be able to do that."

"All of the (levy) money approved would be used in that department," Weber said.

In 2004, county voters defeated an 8-mill safety levy when it was on the ballot with three other county levy measures.

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com