Reserve officers are important to the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Department

When Sheriff Dan Marx was inducted into office in April of last year, he said he wanted to make sure the department's clerical staff handles clerical work and jailers handled the jail work so that deputies could spend their time patrolling and doing other law enforcement duties.

One of the ways this has been accomplished is through the use of reserve officers.  They have been the ones who are serving warrants and civil papers, transporting prisoners and doing time-consuming work that used to keep the deputies out of their patrol cars.

"It's just a great solution," says Chief Deputy Greg Torgrim of the use of reserve officers.  Sheriff Dan Marx also points out that the reserve officers get paid less than half the overtime rate for the full-time deputies, so using the reserve officers actually saves money for the county.

Marx has requested a $20,000 budget for 2016-2017 for wages for reserve officers.  "We need this to keep us viable," he told county supervisors.