Westmoreland sheriff's department struggles with staffing shortage

Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert said his department remains substantially understaffed even after 11 deputies were sworn into duty this week.

The department remains about 10 staffers short of a full roster of 78 deputies.

“We do all the duties we are required to do, but it’s a constant struggle,” Albert said.

The sheriff’s department is responsible for courtroom security, serving warrants and prisoner transfers. Deputies are required to have police training or complete a 19-week course for new hires. Albert said the department in recent years has had difficulty retaining staff and has routinely lost deputies to jobs with local police forces.

Interviews with candidates to fill the remaining vacancies are ongoing, Albert said.

Job retention in the sheriff’s department has been an issue for several years. Albert said his department has been understaffed since he took office in 2020.

The ongoing vacancies required the department to exceed its overtime budget in each of the last four years.

According to financial records from the controller’s office, the county paid more than $149,000 in overtime to deputies in 2018, $181,000 in 2019 and $206,000 in 2020.

Overtime costs exceeded $375,600 last year, and this year, through the beginning of June, the county has paid $146,988 to deputies. The department’s overtime budget for 2022 is $180,000.

Those overtime costs are necessary to meet scheduling requirements to ensure the department continues its current level of services to staff courtrooms and serve warrants, Albert said.

“It used to be that people lined up for jobs here and now it has become difficult for law enforcement agencies to hire,” Albert said.

The department in recent months has had to compensate for two deputies who are off the job after they were charged with crimes.

Albert confirmed Wednesday that deputy Eugene T. Cavaliere, 59, of Youngwood has not returned to work since he was charged last week with drunken driving and cited for public drunkenness. Albert declined to say whether Cavaliere, who has been a deputy since 2015, is suspended and would only say he is still a county employee.

A criminal complaint filed by state police last week states that troopers were called to a domestic disturbance at 1 a.m. May 28 near Cavaliere’s home. Police said Cavaliere had been driving a pickup truck and appeared to be drunk.

Field sobriety tests indicated he was impaired, and a breath test indicated his blood-alcohol level was 0.206%. The legal limit to drive in Pennsylvania is 0.08%.

Troopers said Cavaliere shoved a woman and shook her head with his hands around 11:50 p.m. May 27, according to a harassment citation. He also was cited for public drunkenness in the same incident.

“Gene’s a good man and has served his community as a police officer and sheriff’s deputy for many years,” said his attorney Mike Ferguson. “We’ll look forward to discussing a reasonable resolution of the cases with the district attorney’s office at the preliminary hearing.”

That hearing is set for Sept. 2 in the drunken-driving case. Cavaliere faces a $674 fine in the two citations. He entered a guilty plea, and a Sept. 30 summary trial is set.

Deputy Sam Pilato, 59, of Hempfield was suspended without pay in April after he was charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness for an incident in Louisville, Ky.

According to a police report, Pilato and a friend attempted to enter parked cars and shouted obscenities at an off-duty sheriff’s officer working security at a bar.

Police said Pilato urinated between two cars, identified himself as a deputy sheriff and made an attempt to disarm a security officer.

Pilato previously said he regretted his actions: “I just made a mistake, got drunk and had an interaction with police. It went from bad to worse. I was wrong, and I take responsibility for my actions.”