VALPARAISO | Investigations into high-profile crimes such as the slaying of Portage resident Amanda Bach are taking a financial toll on the Porter County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff David Lain said his department will ask the County Council during its meeting Tuesday to transfer $20,000 from the unused salaries portion of its budget to overtime.
In addition to the Bach case, the Sheriff's Department has racked up overtime hours investigating the Sept. 3 death of Burns Harbor bartender Sheri Jania, who was struck by a vehicle and dragged more than a mile.
The department also has come up short with overtime funding because it was called on this year to provide security at all county meetings and during the tax collection process, Lain said.
"It's almost standard operating procedure," he said of the request for more overtime funding at this point in the year.
The department also is seeking $5,000 in additional funding for overtime to help it cover the obligation of monitoring sex offenders in the county, Lain said.
The proposal calls for drawing the money from a fee collected from sex offenders when they update their registration information, he said.
Lain said the department is looking into buying laptops to help with the monitoring process.
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