The Troup County Board of Commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement on Tuesday that will allow the West Point Police Department to use Troup County Sheriff’s Office deputies.

The City of West Point approved its part of the agreement on Monday as a means to ensure that the city will have enough manpower as it goes through the officer hiring process. Under the agreement, TCSO will loan two deputies a day to fill scheduling holes.

“It comes down to basically our off-duty officers will have the opportunity to go down and work alongside the City of West Point officers,” Assistant County Manager Eric Mosley said.

“[The City of West Point] will be paying for the use of the officers as well as any administrative costs, equipment costs that will be incurred as part of this, as well as, they will be paying mileage for use of the vehicles.”

Mosley said that West Point will pay the county for the full cost on a monthly basis, and the agreement will not affect Troup County’s general fund or budget. The sheriff’s office regularly provides support to cities within the county, but this agreement will address a more consistent need for assistance in the coming months.

“We are just trying to help West Point,” Sheriff James Woodruff said. “We understand it is going to be about 90 days before they have some more people replaced if the current people stay. If they continue to lose people down there, they might have to have help for a little longer, but we’ve worked out all the wrinkles. We are ready to start [Wednesday], providing them with their first deputy down there.”

The time that deputies spend working in West Point will be paid as if they were working a second job instead of additional hours at TCSO, so the agreement will not impact overtime pay for the department.

“It is like an officer who might decide to work at the movie theater or with the school system,” Mosley said. “It is that type of arrangement.”

Commissioner Lewis Davis asked if the agreement would negatively impact TCSO’s staffing levels, and the sheriff said it would not.

“We are at full staff,” Woodruff said.

“We don’t have any openings right now. For a while we’ve been full staff, and I think we can go back and thank the commissioners for that pay raise that they gave [county employees] to help us get full staff and remain fully staffed.”

West Point was grateful for the assistance.

“I’m appreciative of the sheriff and the county commissioners being willing to help us out with this,” West Point Mayor Steve Tramell said. “We are grateful for their help.”

The Troup County Board of Commissioners will meet again on June 5 at 9 a.m. at 100 Ridley Ave.