During my 18 years as Sheriff, leading a group of individuals who are trying to accomplish team goals, I have come to realize that a major factor in accomplishing those goals and being successful, requires a strong supporting cast who perform their tasks or duties at a high level enabling other stake holders in the organization to accomplish success. [Read more…]

With the economy tight and nearly a foot of snow in the forecast I’m thinking of Spring. The calendar says Spring is on the way. Early in my career Spring meant the “Scam Season” was starting. It was the start of the lightning rod scam, the driveway blacktop scam, “you need a new roof for the summer rains” scam. All executed by door-to-door contact, paying with cash at half the price for what it should cost and very little to no paperwork or guarantee on the work. [Read more…]

The New Look of our “Next Generation” Police Cars

Like most of you when I travel around now days I notice that it’s a lot harder to pick out a police patrol car from the other cars on the roadway. For the last 10 or 15 years the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors and the Chevrolet Impalas had become the two premier police patrol vehicles working on patrol in the United States. The Ford’s had the rear wheel drive and Chevrolet had the front wheel drive. Since Ford had limited their Crown Victoria market these last few years to police patrol vehicles or taxi cabs it was quite easy to “pick out” a moving squad car. The Chevy Caprice looked somewhat like other cars on the road but with a little practice a person could get pretty good at picking out the Caprice on patrol in the distance as well. [Read more…]

As I write this column I am really sympathizing with our religious leaders about how difficult it must be to ask their flock for more money. How do you introduce a concept that involves a reality that giving more money is necessary or a good thing for you to do. Most people I talk with want to hear about how much money is being saved-not how much money is being spent. [Read more…]

Like many of you around this time of year I listen as those around me talk about their New Year’s resolutions and wonder whether expressing those hopes and goals to others helps one achieve their lofty expectations. The most common resolutions I hear about are the ones about losing weight, wanting to exercise more, promising to eat healthier or the ultimate resolution about treating every day like it’s your last day. All of these resolutions are certainly well meaning self reflective goals striving to be a better person. January seems to be a good time to bring up these sorts of things since it’s the beginning of a new year and everyone likes to start new and fresh at times so in the spirit of the giving season I’m offering a couple of 2013 New Year’s resolutions of my own that I’ve been thinking about for your evaluation. [Read more…]

Recently while most of America was awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court regarding the universal health care law in America, the Richland County Board of Supervisors and I were wrestling with our own health care issues regarding our legal responsibility to offer health care to inmates of the Richland County Jail. While our decisions were nowhere near the magnitude of the Supreme Court’s decision, our decisions were still very important to our local citizens and taxpayers. [Read more…]

As Sheriff of course I get a lot of input from many people regarding many different things. One of the more unending and intriguing complaints I seem to get more and more often are the complaints that “nobody seems to want to stop at red lights or stop signs anymore.” I’m then told that everyone is in such a hurry to get somewhere these days that it is really dangerous sharing the road with all these impatient people! [Read more…]

Like many of you I have really enjoyed getting out and moving around to enjoy the early spring temperatures and unbelievable warm weather we have been experiencing in mid to late March this year. What I don’t enjoy is the return of the black marks, burn outs and donuts left on our local roadways that seem to appear this time of year. [Read more…]

Occasionally it is important to specifically recognize an accomplishment that is not common. This happened last month for two of my deputies involving an incident from last fall. Recognition is important for a variety of reasons, especially if it is used to evaluate a program and its worth to an organization, or in this case to a community and family. [Read more…]