15-02-2025
Sheriff's office creates casino unit
The Daviess County Sheriff's Office has created a unit dedicated to helping provide security at Owensboro Racing & Gaming.
Sheriff Brad Youngman said the casino unit began helping provide traffic control during Wednesday's grand opening of the new gaming facility on Wrights Landing Road.
The unit provides coverage for large events and for days of expected high traffic, Owensboro Racing & Gaming general manager Steve Roof said. Youngman said the idea is for deputies to be a regular presence on busy days, to augment the facility's security staff.
'We are going to have a fairly significant presence at Owensboro Racing & Gaming, at their request,' Youngman said.
Sheriff's office command staff members have been planning the unit since November. Youngman said the unit is made up of deputies who have volunteered to work shifts at the casino on their days off.
Deputies will be on duty while working at the casino, but considered to be working a special detail, Youngman said. Owensboro Racing & Gaming will pay deputies $65 an hour, which is the equivalent of overtime pay and contributions to benefits like deputies' retirement account, Youngman said.
The arrangement is similar to what the sheriff's office does when it provides deputies to assist the Daviess County Public School Police Department at sporting events, or when deputies provide security for the ROMP Fest, Youngman said.
'It's a big request,' Youngman said. 'At times, there will be multiple deputies there to assist their security staff.'
The idea is that 'we enforce the law' while the facility's security 'enforce the rules,' Youngman said.
'Security will do most of the work. They have trained security personnel on-site,' Youngman said. 'We are there to back them up, if needed.'
Owensboro Racing & Gaming will only pay for deputies at the facility. If a deputy on the detail is called away to respond to a call for service away from the gaming center, the county pays the deputy's time, Youngman said.
'The casino has been very agreeable to work with us,' Youngman said, and that, 'if (deputies) need to leave, they can' to respond to county calls.
The arrangement was made possible by the sheriff's office changing the deputy patrol schedule to four 10-hour days, Youngman said.
'Our new schedule allows more deputies to work out there and still enjoy a quality of life,' Youngman said.
'I'm very excited for my deputies, because they'll stand to make a lot of money doing this,' Youngman said.
The unit policy says a deputy must have at least one shift off between working at the gaming center and working patrol, so deputies won't work back to back patrol and casino unit shifts, Youngman said.
About 25 deputies requested to be part of the unit.
Deputies working the traffic detail were busy Wednesday, partly stopping people leaving the casino from going the wrong way on U.S. 60.
'We pulled over 12 people (Wednesday) that were going the wrong way,' Youngman said.
The state installed new signs at the request of the sheriff's office, warning motorists about turning onto the wrong roadway, Youngman said.
'It was a pretty sleeping intersection before a couple of weeks ago,' he said.
