Sheriff Attends Annual Training Conference

Van Zandt County Sheriff R.P. "Pat" Burnett recently attended the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas 130 Annual Training Conference at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. More than 1,500 people were in attendance.

"We had a very good conference and as with past years, my goal was to learn new ways to save the taxpayers money. I always want to come back with ways to save 10 times what the conference cost," said Burnett.

Burnett said that he spoke with many vendors and there are several new products on the market that could save a lot of money.

"For example, I talked to one vendor that sells cleaning products. They have an individual pack of cleaning products made for mopping. This will keep the trustees from using too much or not enough. It is a much more economical way of doing things," said Burnett.

Burnett said that the biggest source of savings could come from a gift card machine.

"Let’s say a person comes to jail with 26 cents in his pocket and the next day he gets out. We have to write a check for that 26 cents," said Burnett.

"If he doesn’t cash it right way, the bookkeeping goes on for a long time. It not only ties up our manpower but manpower in the auditor’s and treasurer’s offices," said Burnett.

Burnett said that with the use of the machine, a gift card is issued and it is taken care of.

"Once that card is issued, we are out of it," said Burnett.

He also said that there was a good bit of discussion at the conference regarding the county’s pink jail and pink uniforms.

"There were several sheriffs from across the state that asked permission to come visit the jail and look at our population numbers. I think this is a great compliment to the county," said Burnett.

Burnett and other participants received training on a variety of topics including animal abuse investigations, and reducing inmate health care costs without reducing healthcare among other topics.