By JANELLE STECKLEIN
Herald-Banner Staff
GREENVILLE
March 26, 2008 02:30 am
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Q: Rarely do we see a deputy in the northern part of the county and although crime is prevalent, we also see minimal evidence of crimes being investigated or solved. As an example, last year we had three Llamas shot to death from a county road; one each weekend for three straight weeks. Each time it was reported and never once did a deputy bother to come out and look for shell casings, tire marks, of any other evidence that might have been available. My question is “What will the candidates do to include all of Hunt County in their coverage and will the new sheriff allow deputies to investigate crime from the telephone?” — Submitted by Lee
Richard Hill: Rarely ever will we be investigating crimes by telephone if I’m elected sheriff of Hunt County. This is not a good way to solve crimes. Solving crimes is a face-to-face relationship. The victim wants to be heard. The program I want to initiate if I’m elected sheriff is a community-based policing initiative. Each deputy will be assigned a sector to patrol — with the sectors being determined by population — and will rarely leave the sector. That way they get to know the people in the area, as well as, the criminals and the problems in the area. There will no longer be a whole shift of deputies eating at the same time in one restaurant in Quinlan. The deputies will take breaks and eat in their assigned sector. I think each taxpayer across the county should have the same amount of law enforcement and be protected equally. I also plan to implement more training. There is a lot of training courses that can be taken at very minimal expenses. The clock is broken. We must fix it. We have got to do better.
Randy Meeks: What I propose to do goes back to accountability, which will be expected from every employee of the Sheriff’s Office. I have also proposed to divide the county up into four districts. Each deputy will be assigned a district so that each part of the county is covered the same. I am aware that many of the calls come from the southern sector of the county, so I plan to have a rover — most likely the patrol sergeant — to rove the different districts. If most of the calls or problems occur in the south, then he will be in the south. Each deputy will be allowed to investigate and take a case report. If he feels he needs to pass it on the to the Criminal Investigative Division (CID) then he can and they will investigate it. They can investigate by telephone, but most of the time I don’t feel that that will be adequate. I feel like in this case they need to get out and investigate the scene. Most of those that are investigated by telephone will be insignificant cases where they can do it over the telephone. But most of the time they will need to go out to the scene.
Q: Will you be willing to voluntarily release 911 calls as the majority of law enforcement agencies in the area do to be in compliance with Open Records law or will you make individuals file Freedom of Information requests and fight the requests? Also, will your office be in charge of determining if 911 calls are released or will you rely on another agency to make that determination? Submitted by Daniel
Richard Hill: We will always be diligent with the Freedom of Information Act, but I would hesitate to release the calls if the victim would not want his/her identity released because when people call 911 they are calling in for assistance. I would want an individual’s identity withheld to protect them as much as possible. I would not do anything against the advice of the county or district attorney. But on the other hand, we want the public to know what is going on as much as possible. I encourage people to listen to police calls or the scanner.
Randy Meeks: We’re going to be very open because we want their cooperation. I’ll be very open with what is going on. I don’t plan except in special occasions to ask other agencies for permission to release a 911 call. A special occasion would be if it is something of a personal nature where it will require a little scrutiny of the call.
Q: Some people in out-lying areas of the county, especially in the far northern parts and far southern parts, are extremely frustrated with the Sheriff’s Office and their response to crimes. Do you feel the feelings are justified? And if so, what do you plan to do to improve these relationships?
Richard Hill: People have a right to be frustrated. The response times in these sections of the county are slow and many victims of crimes in this area are not getting follow up calls. There are also questions about why it takes so long for their incident reports to find their way into the hands of an investigator. Those are problems that need to fixed and are part of “the broken clock.” If elected, I plan to have deputies assigned to patrol a certain area of the county where they will get to know the residents, criminals and the problems each area faces. I will also put into place guidelines on deputies’ breaks and eating times. During those breaks, I will make sure there is someone covering those areas. I also want to improve response time. We have to look at other methods to see how we are going to make our manpower and resources more available across the county.
Randy Meeks: I do feel like their feelings are justified. I’ve talked to a lot of people. It seems like especially in the southern sector of the county, that they are having a lot of complaints about slow response time. A lot of people are saying there is no response at all. I don’t know that to be a fact, but that’s what I’m hearing. Once again, dividing the county up is going to help. We’re also going to develop a Friends of the Sheriff’s which is going to improve those complaints considerably. We’re going to have active crime alerts with Friends of the Sheriff. I plan to send information to cell phones or to e-mail about crime information immediately as a crime is taking place. Instead of two or three sets of eyes we’re going to have 5,000 or 6,000 sets of eyes. For those that don’t have cell phones or computers, I want to set up neighborhood watch programs. The Friends of the Sheriff alert can also be used for emergency weather alerts, closed roadways, and Amber Alerts. It’s really going to speed up the communications. I’m really excited about this Friends of the Sheriff. It’s a neat thing.
Q: The Sheriff’s Office also unfortunately has the reputation of being closed and the general public — and sometimes local media — has trouble getting information. What do you plan to do to make the office more open and transparent?
Richard Hill: We’re going to take the door off the hinges. We need to work with the media. The media can help us get our message out. I hope to have a daily meeting with all the media of Hunt County and send out e-mails to Hunt County residents. During my campaign, I’ve been told that when people try to contact individuals at the Sheriff’s Office they have to wait for in the lobby for more than 30 minutes only to be told that the person they want to see is not available. We’ve got to fix that and have an open-policy. I want to teach customer service to our employees. We are going to try to do what the taxpayers want because the taxpayers are the boss.
Randy Meeks: I think the Friends of the Sheriff program I plan to implement should help to address this. But we’re going to have an open-door policy. We are the citizen’s first link to help. We must be very open to the public. We’re going to be very proactive in working with the community and letting them know how they can help us solve crimes. I also plan to implement a policy that I call the “Four Pieces of the Puzzle” to help address this. The first piece of the puzzle is the leadership team. That is the team that I am going to assign to lead the office. That team must show leadership in work ethic, morality and honesty. The second piece, is the employees — both sworn and non-sworn. Those individuals are the heart and the soul of the Sheriff’s Office. Both the leadership team and employees will have to go the extra mile to regain the trust of the citizens. The third piece is the community. Law enforcement only works when a mutual acquaintance and trust develops between citizens and officers. The last piece of the puzzle is the Commissioners Court. Large sums of money don’t guarantee great law enforcement, but it is difficult to have it without it. We are all better working together.
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