SLED Chief Warns of “Armageddon” if Law Enforcement Budgets Are Cut More

State Law Enforcement Division Chief Reggie Lloyd called a rare news conference Thursday afternoon to issue a warning about the state’s budget situation. He says budget cuts that have already happened at SLED, and the Departments of Public Safety, Corrections, Juvenile Justice, and Probation, Parole and Pardon Services have already put law enforcement in a bad scenario in the state.

But if the governor and lawmakers don’t reach a compromise on the state budget and federal stimulus funds, Lloyd says it’ll get worse.

“And that worse scenario is a doomsday scenario, as far as I’m concerned, where citizens of this state will go to bed less safe,“ he says.

That’s because Corrections would have to close 2 or 3 prisons and release as many as 3,000 inmates. There would be fewer parole agents to supervise those inmates and others, or respond when a sex offender who’s wearing an ankle monitor strays from his designated areas and sets off the alarm on that monitor. DJJ would have to close more wilderness camps and offer fewer programs, meaning juvenile offenders released back to your home town would be more likely to get into trouble again.