Sheriff, Sisters mayor clear the air on patrol concerns

The future of policing in the city of Sisters has been called into question recently.

Mayor Chuck Ryan and Sheriff Shane Nelson spoke at Wednesday night’s city council meeting to clear the air about the situation.

Sisters has contracted with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement for more then 20 years, but the latest contract expires in 2020.

Recently, the sheriff’s office learned that Ryan has a problem with the agency’s record-keeping.

The mayor told a Sisters newspaper about his concerns over what he considers too many traffic warnings and too few tickets issued by deputies patrolling Sisters.

That issue was news to the sheriff’s office, which has said its goal in dealing with traffic violations is to educate, not rack up fines from drivers.

Sheriff Shane Nelson was at Wednesday night’s meeting to address the mayor’s concerns.

He took responsibility for a lack of adequate record-keeping, saying mistakes were made and are being addressed.

The mayor laid out why he’d raised the issue.

“I’m going to be transparent. I am going to err on the side of transparency,” Ryan said. “I just felt that if something happened down the road, you know, some huge accident or something, and someone comes and looks at our records and says, ‘What kind of record-keeping is this? This is why we had an accident.”

“So I just wanted to be transparent,” Ryan said. “I knew you guys would address it, but I get it that it kind of got out there and the pot got stirred a little bit.”

Nelson then had his turn to speak.

“I 100 percent believe in transparency,” the sheriff said. “What I don’t believe in is getting my information from the news media. I like to have face-to-face visits with the folks we are partnering with. That was my only concern, and trust me, I have no issue going forward with it from here.”

In the end, both the city and sheriff’s office said they’re able to move forward, as the agency is working to make sure its record-keeping improves.

Still, Ryan did not rule out the possibility of reinstating the Sisters Police Department at some point, but he also said that has nothing to do with the current issue.

Instead, he said it’s part of the city’s visioning process and discussions about how the area should grow.

Nelson said he’s happy to support the city of Sisters in any way he can — even if it does decide to go its own way on law enforcement.