(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

Sgt. Larry Matthews (left) and Deputy Todd Aaron, both with the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, conduct a late-night traffic stop.

On Monday, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors passed the final budget for this year. The new spending plan lacks money to give much-needed raises to senior deputies at the Sheriff’s Office. Attrition has plagued the agency for years. The most experienced people often make the same wage as a new recruit. To solve the problem this year, County officials tried to add a sales tax, property tax and even sweep funds from other departments. But all those efforts failed.

In May, KJZZ's Matthew Casey did a ride along with a Mohave County Deputy who will soon have to choose between loyalty and better pay.

Mohave County Sheriff Deputy Todd Aaron guided his patrol truck down a bumpy, unpaved road in Golden Valley. He was there on a report of suspicious activity at a house sitting at the end of a long driveway.

It's likely the home was once someone’s retirement dream-come-true. But the owner was nowhere in sight.

Aaron, 49, spotted a pickup that may have been stolen. He worried about being outnumbered.

In case of emergency, Aaron had first explained how to get out the shotgun and rifle stashed inside his patrol vehicle.

“Just hit that button,” the former chief petty officer for the U.S. Navy said. “They unlock, and just flip them open.”

There was nobody inside the home, which meant Aaron didn’t need help from a reporter who doesn’t know how to shoot a gun.

If he had needed real backup, it would have taken a while because the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office simply doesn’t have enough people.

“When you have 50 deputies patrolling 13,000 square miles of area, logistically, it’s problematic, to say the least,” said Doug Schuster, Mohave County Sheriff.

Schuster took office this year and hustled to fill vacancies. The next step is to convince Mohave County officials to add more deputies.

“In reality, we’re running probably 25 positions lower than we need to be, at a minimum,” Schuster said.

Before trying to grow the agency, Schuster lobbied to get raises for senior deputies.

But the Mohave County Board of Supervisors did not include the extra funding needed when it recently passed the final budget for this year. Officials tried to add a sales tax, property tax and even sweep funds from other departments. Their efforts failed.

Now Aaron won't get his second pay raise in 11 years.

Given the disappointment, it would not surprise Schuster if his most experienced people have already applied to other agencies

“It very much is demoralizing because they were all under the impression that this year we were going to get it done,” Schuster said.

A Mohave County deputy’s starting pay is about $20 an hour, which is competitive, Schuster said. The problem comes later, when the deputy has earned a raise and there’s no money to give them.

“The 10-year deputy says, ‘Enough. I’m not going to do this anymore,’” Schuster said. “And they transfer to various agencies around Arizona.”

Attrition is an epidemic that’s plagued the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office and threatens the safety of deputies and the public, Schuster said. The problem has persisted for years, caused staffing shortages, made response times longer and put people like Aaron in danger.

“Their safety is paramount to me,” Schuster said. “I’m very frustrated when we have single officers handling calls that require more than that.”

(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

Mohave County Sheriff Doug Schuster.

The public pays about $100,000 to put a recruit through the police academy. Mohave County officials said they often lose the investment. Navajo County uses contracts to guarantee deputies don’t leave too soon.

“For the taxpayer of Navajo County, there is some bang for their buck where I still am going to be the Triple-A team, maybe, but I’m going to get a little bit from my investment,” said Jim Molesa, chief deputy of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office.

Navajo County has three open deputy positions. Contracts have helped lower attrition, Molesa said. But when they’re finished, some people still look to advance their career. Three of Arizona’s biggest law-enforcement agencies have said they’re stepping up efforts fill vacancies.

“They welcome the fact that an individual may come to them with their academy background and a couple years (of) experience,” Molesa said.

Deputy Aaron has watched peers leave for better paying jobs. He’s the only recruit from his academy class who’s still with the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.

Aaron wants to help victims. He made more than one attempt to get the stolen pickup towed at no cost to the owner. But as the calls for service piled up, it got harder for him to find time for paperwork and follow-ups.

“There are those days where you just come out here and it’s just like, ‘You know what, man, I can’t do it today,’” Aaron said.

Darkness fell and dispatch sent Aaron to a disturbance call in a trailer park near Kingman.

“My stomach is nervous right now,” Aaron said as he drove. “If I ever lose this feeling, then I know it’s time to look for something else.”

The scene at the trailer park was chaos. Aaron got out of his patrol vehicle and walked toward a man with a loaded gun, though Aaron didn’t know it.

All of the other deputies in the area came to help, which meant there was no one left to take new calls. The situation repeated itself until the night finally ended.

Aaron went home already feeling the weight of the next day’s workload.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t find any of the people that committed some of the crimes we had to investigate,” Aaron said.

Aaron will marry this year. He hopes to retire from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office someday and become a school-bus driver. But with the size of his pension tied to his salary, Aaron has accepted that he might have to eventually move on.

(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

Mohave County Sheriff'd Deputy Todd Aaron checks the VIN number on a stolen pickup.