There is a lot of speculation around who I will bring back into my administration when re-elected. I’ll get right to the point.
Anyone from my previous administration who was a Captain or above and who is currently not employed by the Sherriff’s Office, will not be rehired.
Once I am elected I encourage any Deputy below the rank of Captain who is no longer with the Sheriff’s Office to visit with me about their employment opportunities.
Crime Prevention-Needs and Support
JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER
The current Sheriff wants to build a jail annex at a cost of millions to Benton County tax payers. Major mistake! This county must get on track with building a new and effective Juvenile Detention Center. If we want to reduce crime, we need to get to the root of the problem, our youth!
I am asking the citizens of Benton County to get involved with this important issue now, before you have a personal need. No secret Benton County is the fastest growing county in the state and region and that holds true with juvenile issues. Studies have been done on juvenile crime. The studies revealed by the year 2015 we will have the largest population of juveniles ages 15 and under, on our streets in America.
Juvenile crime has risen sharply in the last two decades, many of these crimes are violent and we have witnessed that trend right here in Benton County. Remember when you are discussing the issue of a new JDC that all of our adult criminals were once juveniles!
Briefly, here is how the JDC should operate. After the youth is arrested and assigned to the JDC by the Circuit Court the process of maturing them should begin. This is strictly youths that have been convicted and have been assigned long term to the JDC. Immediately all their medical needs will be taken care of. Everything from head to toe! If they are on drugs will become drug free. Once on their feet they will spend the next three months in a JDC Boot Camp. The youth offender will get in shape, learn to respect authority, learn what team work is, learn proper hygiene, learn how make their beds, clean their clothes and police their surroundings, etc. Upon graduation of boot camp the youth offender will start rehabilitation programs that will develop them into a productive and mature young adult. JDC programs and education programs would run in tandem with the youth’s current education level. We will instruct the youth with hands on education, such as shop programs like carpentry, mechanical, welding, hair dressing, home ed, etc. Computer training, resume writing, job interviewing and how to manage a bank checking and saving account. Nearing the end of their incarceration, the youth offender will participate in wilderness survival training. We will teach them how to set up camp, fish and trap for food, respect for the environment, completing this program on a positive and self confidence building theme.
Benton County will be reconized for sending a juvenile delinquent into the juvenile system and releasing him or her into the world a mature young adult!
Benton County Women’s Shelter and Benton County Children’s Advocacy Center
You have seen on national and local news many stories of child pornography and sexual assaults on our children and missing women only to be discovered later, murdered. It almost seems that is a daily news lead.
Frequently we should be hearing from the elective Sheriff about two agencies in Benton County that play a major part in protecting our women and children. These agencies are the Benton County Women’s Shelter and the Benton County Children’s Advocacy Center. When elected I will see with the assistance of my wife, Holly, that the Sheriffs Office take the lead in obtaining funding to support these two agencies.
When I was Sheriff, my wife, Holly worked full time and was unable to get involved in important projects such as the Children Advocacy Center and the Women’s Shelter. Holly is now retired. She would like get involved in three projects and promote their importance by using the platform of the Sheriff’s Office. We will immediately start a campaign to secure the funding and monies it will take to support these three projects: The Juvenile Detention Center, The Children’s Advocate Center and the Women’s Shelter. We expect that corporations and citizens in Northwest Arkansas to support these vital agencies. So be on the lookout we will be knocking……..
A foot note; As your Sheriff in 1988 the first thing we did in training was to have every Deputy attend a training program on violence against women and then tour the Women Shelters of Benton and Washington Counties. This training went on every year I was Sheriff. This training will once again start up when I am re-elected Sheriff. Our Office will not neglect the importance of protecting women, and children against violence.
There simply is no excuse for women and child abuse anywhere and especially in Benton County. I will deal with this growing epidemic with a vengeance!
Suggested reading:
CHILDREN’S ADVOCATE CENTER
http://www.nationalcac.org/ncac/who_we_are.html
http://www.nationalcac.org
THE WOMEN’S SHELTER
I may not have won on the ballot, but I did win on leadership and the issues!
“Rogers solidifies 287(g) agreement.”
This headline was posted in the Benton County Daily Record on Wednesday September 26, 2007. In 2006, my campaign for Sheriff highlighted the importance of participation in the 287(g) program. This program and others like it, give cities and counties the necessary tools to suppress gangs, illegal immigrants involved in crime, and drug abuse.
We introduced the 287 g federal program during my last campaign. The program and my desire to get our local law enforcement agencies involved was a primary position on which I built my campaign. Law enforcement in the area, including the current leadership of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, did not know that this program existed. Since the introduction of the program, almost every law enforcement agency in Northwest Arkansas has applied to participate. This demonstrates that I still have the influential leadership that successfully guided the Benton County Sheriff’s Office from the inefficient organization that it was in 1988 to the leading law enforcement agency that it was when I retired.
Issues like gangs, illegal immigrants involved with crime, and drug abuse bother me. I’m concerned about the direction our country is going in regarding these issues. I don’t want our children or grandchildren to worry about the future. I want to make the neighborhoods and schools of Benton County safe and free of gangs, illegal immigrants involved in criminal activity, and drug abuse. “Attacking this problem requires strong leadership in the Office of Sheriff. I have proven my ability to lead. I am offering the Citizens of Benton County that leadership for the future.”
GANGS:
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)
KNOW THIS: “When I am sworn into office at 12:01am on January 1, 2009, gangs in Benton County will feel our presence. By the end of my first two-year term, it will be difficult to find gangs or their members in our schools, cities, or county. Gang members will either be in jail, in prison, or on their way out of our county.”
“I just haven’t seen any gangs!” I commonly hear this response when talking about the existence of gangs in Northwest Arkansas. Truth is, you won’t see them, just what they leave behind. Let me explain.
When driving through Little Rock or Tulsa, do you see any gangs? How about when you’re traveling in L.A. or Chicago? See any gangs? Probably not! Yet, these are major cities known for their gang activity. We don’t see the gangs but we do see what they leave behind to mark their territory. Graffiti!
Gangs don’t work in the open as exposed organizations. They are skilled in “guerrilla warfare”. Gangs initiate a crime by picking a target and carefully executing a plan. Odds are, if you see a gang, you are about to become a victim!
Secrecy is a gang’s biggest ally.We do exactly what they want us to when we avoid talking publicly about their existence. Community leaders are afraid to acknowledge gang activity. They fear that by admitting the problem, the growth and economy of the community will suffer. Ignoring the problem will do just that. Secrecy and refusing to acknowledge gang activity allows them to grow and developed.
Fighting the demons of Gangs!
In 1993, I publicly stated that there were signs of gangs in our county and the most prevalent signs were in Rogers. The then Mayor of Rogers and the editor of a local newspaper didn’t like what I had to say. In time, the City of Rogers did confirm there was at least one organized gang that had infiltrated their community.
Times have changed and so have attitudes. Recently, the Mayor of Rogers, Steve Womack, publicly declared, at a mens Republican meeting in Bella Vista, that there are gangs in his city. Womack continued to say that his first duty as Mayor was to “protect his citizens and their property”. This Mayor should be commended! Although there is new leadership and a change in attitude about gangs, the time spent getting there has allowed the gangs to grow. I recently received information from a Rogers Police Officer documenting that the gang problem has escalated from one gang in 1993 to over 42 known gangs today!
The problem is far from being eliminated. The Sheriff, the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the county, must be assertive and publicly address the issue of gangs, giving support to our cities and towns in their fight to get rid of them.
This is what happens when we choose to do nothing!
In the last year, Benton County had:
• Two murders;
1. A father of five children; May 2006
2. A 17-year-old boy; December 2006
• A Rogers Police Officer was shot; October 2006
• A Bentonville School recorded a gang initiation known as a “jump in” (the physical beating of a someone who wants to be initiated into a gang) inside the school; March 2007
• Federal ICE Agents in the month of September of this year (2007) executed a sting operation and out of 200 felony warrants, 41 illegal aliens (mostly gang members) were arrested. The warrants were for crimes other than being in this country illegally.
All of the above happened because of gangs and/or illegal immigration.
The County Sheriff is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the County. The Sheriff must support all law enforcement agencies and lead innovative initiatives to reduce crime.
The Sheriff must have the vision to see changes that are occurring in the county, the leadership to act before being forced to, and the integrity to act on an issue even when it is not popular!
Isn’t that the primary responsibility of the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of Benton County? The responsibility of the Sheriff you elect?
Thinking back to 1993, I try to imagine what the number of gangs would be if the media and others had not labeled me the “Sheriff Who Cried Wolf”. I also wonder how many gangs there will be in the future if our Chief Law Enforcement Officer fails to acknowledge that gangs and illegal immigration exists!
Time is running out, this is why I am running for Sheriff!
SUGGESTED SITE ON GANGS
This web site is a very important site for you and your family to visit. It is full of information that will demonstrate the importance of having aggressive law enforcement. A good starting place is in the fifth paragraph. In this paragraph you will see several blue highlighted references. The first one is “gangs”. Click it to start your journey and begin to understand gangs and what they can do to your community.
Be sure to click on highlighted titles below!
In 1989 when I was sworn in as Sheriff, we had two community crime watch organizations, Bella Vista and Lost Bridge Village. Crime Watch was an organization for residents who lived in a specific area to watch out for one another. Members of this organization would drive around looking for anything that was suspicious. The crime watchers had a good but archaic system of communications in place. This was the way it worked.
When members were out on patrol and saw something suspicious, the crime watch member would use a two way radio, to radio a base operator. The base operator would then call the Sheriff’s Office, who would radio a Deputy. Information passed through several channels before it got to the field Deputy. Many times the information was incorrect because of all the channels it went through. This Crime Watch system required at least two people working at all times; a person out on patrol and a person to receive radio calls. The base operator had to have a radio and a phone available to call the Sheriff’s Office, all at their expense.
Our administration recognized there was a more effective way to communicate with the crime watch members who were on patrol and at the same time, eliminate the person manning the civilian base radio. Our solution was to loan each crime watch organization a hand held police radio. This would allow the crime watch member on patrol to speak directly to the field Deputy. What a difference this made!
The first week of using our radios, a member of the Lost Bridge Village Crime Watch witnessed some burglars at work. He radioed our dispatch and spoke directly to the field Deputy. The field Deputy was some distance away, but we also put our radio system in the local State Police units and as luck would have it a State Trooper was within reasonable distance. The Trooper asked to intervene, did so, and was able to locate the burglars and make the arrest. All thanks to the crime watch member and the police radio we issued them. Before I retired we had well over twenty crime watch organizations in Benton County all using our police radios. The system we put in place worked well.
But, we need to take the crime watch watch patrol a step further. We will introduce another civilian crime fighting tool. This will be a Sheriff’s patrol car with side door markings that will read “Citizens Patrol”. A Sheriff’s vehicle that clearly shows this is a civilian on patrol. Instead of just issuing a radio, we will issue a patrol car with a radio and the standard police equipment. No longer will our “Citizen Patrol” use their private cars, pay for gas, or cover the cost of insurance when on watch patrol. This will be covered by their county tax dollars. We will have signs placed on all streets leading into any participating community that read “NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH by CITIZENS ON PATROL”
In addition to placing patrol units into neighborhoods, the Sheriff’s Office will seek funding to send active Neighborhood Crime Watch members to the National Association Citizens on Patrol annual conference. A lot can be learned by attending these conferences through sharing experiences and ideas. Together we will stop crime from entering our neighborhood, community and county.
It’s become clear that the “zero tolerance” policy on alcohol use at Beaver Lake was too aggressive and intrusive. When speaking with residences of the lake area and the folks who visit there, I discovered that the Sheriff’s Office was excessive when enforcing the policy. When asked if we would go back to the similar policy when I am re-elected Sheriff, my answer was “No!”
A Lake Patrol will encourage being safe and using common sense while on the lake. However, dock owners will not be questioned about the presence of alcohol. Boaters won’t be asked if alcohol is in the cooler. Campers will not be questioned about alcohol at the campsite.
Please understand. This policy change will not give partygoers the freedom to get drunk and violate the law, cause a public disturbance, or compromise the safety of others. Areas like Nelson Hollow, Martins Bluff, Hogscald Hollow, etc. will be closely monitored. If caught misusing these places, you wiil be held accountable for your actions.
We have had serious problems with alcohol abuse in the past. That behavior was responsible for many accidents and deaths. There was a time that freedom to do as you please was the norm, compromising the privacy and safety of others. I hear that some of that behavior has resurfaced. When re-elected as your Sheriff, the troublemakers will be disciplined. My word!
