Yesterday Plymouth County Sheriff Joe McDonald announced his plan to layoff 33 employees, including all 27 members of the department’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The layoff notices coincide with the legislature’s crack down on the runaway spending of our sheriffs over the past few years.
In late 2025, sheriffs across the state reported a cumulative budget deficit that exceeded $100 million.
Thankfully law makers had enough backbone to stop much of the overage pay and order an investigation into the sheriffs’ spending practices.
The initial report of the inspector general concluded that the sheriffs’ budget processes are “opaque, chaotic, and deeply flawed.”
The inspector general believes that many of the budgetary issues stem from unclear and outdated laws defining the authority and responsibilities of the counties’ sheriffs.
Consequently, you have, for instance, a Suffolk jail guard working as harbor master in Winthrop or Norfolk civil process deputies buying a RV for no apparent reason.
According to the Boston Globe, “the layoffs appear to be among the first ripple effects of a spending showdown between the state’s 14 sheriff’s offices and the Legislature.”
Let’s hope the Legislature can rein in the out-of-control spending and bring some clarity to the sheriffs’ role in law enforcement.