Perry ? When there’s trouble here, residents have two options.

They call 911. Or they call Gonzo.

Sometimes they do both.

It’s not uncommon for Police Chief Ramon Gonzalez Jr. to be awakened in the middle of the night at home by a worried Perry resident calling about a suspicious person or car seen prowling the streets of this small southwest Jefferson County town.

“We’ve got 500 people always watching,” said Gonzalez, 55. “We don’t have to publicize neighborhood watch. Neighborhood watch is here — without the signs and everything else.”

When a middle-of-the-night matter is taken care of, Gonzalez returns home and prepares to go to his day job — as a risk assessment investigator at SBC.

Gonzalez, sometimes called Gonzo by those who know him, is in charge of a police department that, including himself, has three part-time officers.

Such arrangements are increasingly common in small towns. In three other Jefferson County towns, part-time police chiefs work full time as sheriff’s deputies.

In Perry, Officer Wes Cottrell, 22, works as a pipe fitter for a heating and air-conditioning company. Officer C.P. Uitts has a full-time job as a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy.

“We can’t afford a full-time police department,” said Perry Mayor Matt Willkomm. “It’s too expensive.”

In the early 1990s, Perry tried having one full-time officer, Willkomm explained. After 1994, however, the town went back to part-time officers only.

Perry police officer Wesley Cottrell, left, Police Chief Ramon Gonzalez Jr., right, and C.P. Uitts, rear, make up the Perry Police Department. Uitts also serves as a full-time Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy.

“We think it works pretty well this way,” he said.

Perry city budget records for 1994 were in storage and weren’t readily available, but Gonzalez estimated that today it would cost between $70,000 and $80,000 to cover minimum pay and benefits for one full-time officer.

By contrast, the town’s entire police department budget for fiscal year 2003 is $46,500, and not all of that is expected to be used, Perry officials said. Last budget year the department had total expenditures of $31,000.

Gonzalez took over as police chief last March, but served a stint as chief in the mid-1990s and was a city officer at various times since 1979. His absences were primarily because of SBC job transfers, he said.

The state qualifications and training requirements for a part-time officer are the same as those for a full-time officer. Gonzalez and his officers follow a very flexible schedule.

“We’re out there when we’re needed,” he said. “We’re not tied down to a schedule like full-time officers would be. I know most of the people here in town, and if there is a problem I know they are going to call me.”

Gonzalez and the officers monitor their police radios while home and if an officer on the street sees something unusual the others can respond without waiting for a call.

Early on Jan. 30, Gonzalez and Cottrell were called when burglaries were discovered at Golden Pizza and the U.S. Post Office in Perry. Uitts heard the chatter over the radio and responded, as did other sheriff’s deputies.

Sheriff’s officers also keep an eye on the town and are aware of the times when the police are out on patrol and when they are not, Sheriff Roy Dunnaway said.

Likewise, if there is a bad traffic accident on U.S. Highway 24 or a problem out in the county near Perry, police officers will assist sheriff’s officers, Dunnaway and Gonzalez said. Sometimes Perry police can get to a scene more quickly.

“We’re not a big sheriff’s department and we can’t always respond,” said Dunnaway, who began his law enforcement career in 1969 as the Perry city marshal. “We try to take care of one another.”

Added Gonzalez: “There have been a lot of times when we’ve been home and went out on something wearing just T-shirts and shorts.”

Gonzalez, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, grew up in the Argentine section of Kansas City, Kan. He began his part-time law enforcement career as a reserve officer with that city’s police department and later worked for the Larned and Topeka police departments.

Gonzalez also is a part-time deputy under Dunnaway. He handles internal affairs investigations and acts as a Spanish translator for prisoners. The jail is often used for housing prisoners for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“It’s pretty nice to have him there because he can even understand the slang,” Dunnaway said.