Sheriff candidates respond to questions
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The upcoming Bledsoe County election has been a bit different this year with many of the main offices decided in the primary as some offices were not contested. However, there are two main races that still have to be decided along with some commission and school board seats.
Early voting continues through August 1 at the Bledsoe County Courthouse. Precinct voting for the Bledsoe County General Election along with the State Republican and Democratic Primary is set for August 4.
One of those main offices is Bledsoe County Sheriff. Incumbent Jimmy Morris [R] is being challenged by Independent candidate Clint Holloway. Each candidate was asked the same four questions. Their answers follow in this article
JIMMY MORRIS
Q: How will your department curtail the rising fentanyl presence and other illegal drug sales and usage in the county?
A: We have another drug dog on the way. We have one in training. Going to have a handler in training. We just make vehicle stops. And after 20 years as sheriff, the commission all got together and finally got me a narcotics agent. So, drug arrests has really went up. We’ve got fentanyl now and now we got something new, I don’t know the name of it. It’s not got to Bledsoe County yet. It’s in others, like Knoxville, Memphis, they’ve had two or three ODs (overdoses) with it. It’s like seven times stronger than fentanyl. It’s an ongoing circle. You get one thing under control then something else is in your town before you know it.
Q: How would you prepare your staff to handle mental health situations when responding to calls?
A: We would handle them respectfully, very easy. And all of our certified officers are trained on dealing with the mentally ill.
Q: What can be done to attract and retain deputies for the sheriff’s department and for correctional officers at the detention center? How do you plan to accomplish this?
A: Our correctional officers, we are full right now. So, the commissioners got together, gave them more money, and that’s really helped us with the quality of correction officers. As far as deputies, they’re very hard to find. You have people wanting a job, but you just cannot give a gun and badge to anyone. We just run ‘help needed’ in the Bledsonian – you can’t recruit them. It’s a hard. Correctional officers, we’re full right now, we’re fully staffed. It’s very hard to get a deputy. Pay is good now. The commission’s done great, the commission has been very good to me. It’s just a hard thing to fill. Our SRO staff is full, but as road officers, we could use two right now.
Q: What policy would you have concerning alleged misconduct of your staff or officers?
A: The conduct of our staff, if they’re not doing what’s right, if it’s a very simple thing, they get written up, it’s looked into. If it’s bad enough they get written up, and if it’s the worst case scenario, I fire them. At the end of the day, we all work for you, the citizens of Bledsoe County.
CLINT HOLLOWAY
Q: How will your department curtail the rising fentanyl presence and other illegal drug sales and usage in the county?
A: I would say more patrol in the rural areas. Not only the rural areas, 127 you’ve got a lot of traffic coming through 127. More traffic stops. All the calls that come in, somebody calls in and says there’s a potential heavy traffic area, at a certain location, put deputies working on that. If you get a call that comes in, say to the jail, just returning the calls, and working that area. I mean, you know just investigating. You can’t take every call as far as just, you gotta look into every call you get, investigate it, if there’s something there, work it.
Q: How would you prepare your staff to handle mental health situations when responding to calls?
A: More training on mental health. You got training you got to do every year, of course, but extended training on mental health. And it’s growing, mental health. I mean, it seems like you get more and more calls every day on mental health. I would just strive on more training for mental health.
Q: What can be done to attract and retain deputies for the sheriff’s department and for correctional officers at the detention center? How do you plan to accomplish this?
A: To attract more? I mean, as far as citizens taxpayers’ money, it’s hard as training, though, saying a new officer to go to the academy right now that’s free anyway, so that’s not on the taxpayers. For Bledsoe County, I would say the place is pretty decent. You know, as far as law enforcement, looking at surrounding counties, it’s pretty good pay. It’s just law enforcement right now, it’s hard to fill the shoes in that spot. There will be a lot of advertising, and a lot of training, it’s hard to fill the shoes with certified law enforcement anyway. Of course, you got a lot of new people, as far as I say new people, wanting to come into law enforcement. You know, that’s great they ain’t never done it before, but just give the folks a chance. If they’re interested, I’d be interested more than an interesting in them and helping them start their journey.
Q: What policy would you have concerning alleged misconduct of your staff or officers?
A: Alleged misconduct, would be investigated. I mean, like I said, you need to listen to your officers. Back your officers. And you also need to listen to the public. But I would investigate alleged, I would hold them to high standard with integrity. I mean, you’re carrying a badge, you ought to hold your head up high, carrying that. So, you’d definitely would be held to high standard.
