HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — The first forum of the 2024 election for sheriff in Houston County was organized by the War Town Young Republicans. They said this was their largest forum in recent years.
Four candidates answered questions directly from their community and it was quite the agenda. The questions covered gun laws, K-9 programs, budgets, recruitment and more.
The community wanted to know how important safety for the children would be, so they wanted to know what they would do about the school resource officer program. Jimmy Dunn considers it to be a priority.
"One thing we have to look at our kids are our future and how we protect them with our school resource officers we have to do it at the best ability we can," Dunn said.
Slate Simons wants a deputy at every school with active shooter training.
"With the collaboration with the commissioners, and we can get together and get on the same page, we’ll be able to facilitate a sheriff deputy in every single school and I a hundred percent support it," Simons said.
William Kendall also wants a presence at every school, but he wants his deputies to be on the lookout.
"SRO’s at each school who are trained in the identification of child abuse, child sex abuse, drug abuse, and have the ability to be good role models," Kendall said.
Moulton said in order for deputies to identify things they need to engage with the students.
"Instead of just having a deputy walking the hallways, I want to have the deputies engaging with the students identifying at-risk youth that are more susceptible to get involved in gang activity," Moulton said.
People in the community also wanted to know how candidates would handle recruiting. Moulton said the legacy has done most of the work.
"The sheriff’s office has never had to recruit and people don’t leave. We’ve got people that have worked at the sheriff’s office for 40-plus years," Moulton said.
Kendall said he’s increased his staff since he started as the District Attorney.
"Been plenty of times we’ve been the only fully staffed office in the entire state of Georgia. I plan to do the same thing as sheriff," Kendall said.
Simons said recruiting needs to go beyond social media.
"We can show up to the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. There’s free agents that walk across the stage every single day that are post certified, turnkey, ready to go, and enter our FTO program," Simons said.
Dunn said Houston County isn’t the only place facing shortages.
"It’s a national problem. I think we’re right at national level," he continued "once I get elected and in office, then I could solve that problem very quickly.
The candidates are running to replace the longest-serving sheriff in the country, Cullen Talton. They all said they're committed to keeping his open-door policy for the community.
The primary election for the sheriff's race is May 21. There is a fifth candidate Democrat Arthur Harris. He'll face the Republican winner in November.