Grand Traverse County Sheriff Tom Bensley has plenty on his plate on a good day. Today, he's facing a shortage of seven officers out of his total of 24, caused by several recent departures and retirements. It's where we began a sit-down conversation with The Ticker.

Ticker: Are you understaffed? Is there a safety concern?
Bensley: Oh yeah. If you have two cars on the road to take care of the whole county and you need both cars because someone's beating up his wife, you now have zero on the roads. And then how far away are they when other calls come in. So yes. But I've been talking about this problem for years. I've been Sheriff for five and a half years, and only one time for two weeks were we overstaffed by one person; we knew someone was leaving and we had someone up and running and ready. Once. We've asked every year for more officers.

Ticker: Are your deputies underpaid?
Bensley: What do you want to compare them to? They make less than the city police, I think, and we're in the same building. They make less than the State Police, and our guys are on the same calls in the county as they are. I think the bottom line is we can't attract and keep good people. Our officers are making $51,000 after four years on duty. We're trying to work with the county to find ways to incentivize for longevity, or with bonuses, for performance, or something.

Ticker: Is it just pay why most are leaving? And where are they going?
Bensley: In our exit interviews they always say, 'it's not you guys or the job; it's the pay.' And it's not just wages why they're leaving, but defined contributions as well. In the last 34 months, 24 people have left the law enforcement division. Of those, three retired, eight went to private sector, eight have gone to other departments, one was terminated, and four did not get through our field training. There are also a few other not on this list yet who might be leaving too.

Ticker: What about the need for a new jail? What's the latest there?
Bensley: It comes down to the priority of the county. It's an issue. Is it going to get addressed? I don't know.

Ticker: Some people say you're jailing nonviolent drug and alcohol offenders.
Bensley: Well, a consultant has advised us now to look at the criminal justice system from start to finish, from when our officer investigates all the way through when the judge says 'you're going to jail.' So are we all doing it the right way and putting the right people in jail? The new Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee is being formed by the county to study the whole system.

Ticker: You now have a free mobile app that shows updates to whomever downloads it. How's that going?
Bensley: Good, I think. We would like everybody to have it because we're trying to put out information, and we're going to try to put out more information. When we put a photo of a suspect up, we get results [Bensley estimates 2,000-plus people have downloaded it]. People get their news differently than the old days, as you know.

Ticker: Will you run again in 2016?
Bensley: I do intend to. Whether I've done a good job, that's for somebody else to judge. Ask those who work here and those in the community.

Ticker: How heavy is the badge?
Bensley: Some days go better than others. When we catch bad guys that's a good day. But I don't sleep particularly well. I'm up for an hour in the middle of the night thinking about work., 'how can we change this make it better,' or 'how do we get and keep good people.' But I love my job every day.