Law Enforcement Philosophy

There are many crimes that have caused laws to exist that a Sheriff’s Office is charged with enforcing.  My philosophy is to identify those crimes that pose the biggest threat to people and property, and aggressively and creatively fight against them.  I believe that illicit drug crimes (including theft, burglary, and criminal mischief committed by those supporting their drug activities), driving under the influence, and domestic violence all fall under that category and are my biggest priority.  I have seen that tackling those crimes generally reduces the calls for service and the overall crime rates.

Law Enforcement Administration Philosophy

Law Enforcement is not about having all of the answers.  No amount of experience or training courses will equip a person to “do it all alone”.  Both enforcing and the administration of the law enforcement process, as well as almost every other area of life is most successfully managed if one has access to quality resources and knows when and how to use them. The most important and valuable resource in the successful administration of the law is the people that are charged with enforcement.  I believe that the right people have unmatched integrity, are thoroughly competent, and therefore, can be most successful in reducing and preventing dangerous risks to our community.  I know that those valuable people are attracted and motivated by compensation, thorough training, and the right equipment to get the job done.  All three of those very important things take money that always seems to be in short supply.  I know that there are limited funds that our County Commissioners have to allocate to the Sheriff’s Office and those fiscal challenges will continue to grow.  It is the Sheriff’s responsibility to use the available allocation of funds efficiently, and to aggressively and creatively seek additional funds from other sources such as government and private grants which are certainly available.

I also believe that the Sheriff should be humble enough to seek input from the community about their law enforcement concerns, and address them appropriately.  I think the Sheriff should facilitate ongoing community education where citizens are given information to help themselves and each other become safer and more informed about how to assist in crime prevention.

Another responsibility of the Sheriff that I plan to pursue further is to maintain close working relationships with our local legislators, so that they know what is important to their communities, and put myself in a position to quickly know when laws change.