The First 100 Days
What follows is my plan for the first 100 days in office as the Lawrence County Sheriff should the people of Lawrence County decide to put me in office. The plan has three phases overall:
I. ASSESMENT & STABILIZE: DAYS 0 - 30
I cannot truthfully tell the people of Lawrence County the direction I am going to take their Sheriff’s Office without first establishing exactly the shape it is in. Attempting to do so would set our team up for failure and violate the trust of our citizens.
II. IMMPLAMENT IMPROVMENTS & REPORT: DAYS 30 – 90
After a true assessment has been completed, I will have clear picture of where the Sheriff Office stands and will be able to implement the improvements needed. Not only will I deliver the assessment’s findings to the public but also the specific steps that will be taken to address our shortcomings.
III. MEASSURE & REPORT: DAYS 90 - 100
This phase consists of gathering data to assess the changes implemented in phase II of the plan. This phase will also continue throughout my entire term as Sheriff. This data collection will not only allow me to constantly monitor the state of the Sheriff’s Office but will ensure I can show the people of our county that their Sheriff’s Office is working the way they deserve.
I will cover some specifics of the above phases in depth in just a moment, but I feel it is important to be very clear on a couple key points:
· Firstly, the highest priority I will have, from the moment I swear in, will be to ensure that the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office is ready and able to effectively serve the people of Lawrence County. This means that if any part of this plan leads to a lowering of that readiness it will be set aside until such time that it can be undertaken without sacrificing the extremely high level of service the people of our county deserve.
· Secondly, there are some issues that I have said I will address at the first possible chance if I am elected. I will keep my word. These are issues that will not need to be assessed because they were significant issues while I was employed there and remain unresolved issues now. These changes will also be measured for the changes needed throughout my term in office.
In the military I learned that we start counting from zero. Every school or training event has a DAY ZERO. If I am elected to the Office of Sheriff by the people of Lawrence County, day zero will start at midnight on January 1st, 2027, when I swear in.
Day 0 – WORK WITH THOSE ON DUTY
I will walk out of the courthouse after swearing in and work alongside the deputies working the cold New Years Night. I will be a working Sheriff and never expect my people to do something I would not do myself.
Day 1 – MEETING DAY
There will be multiple staff meetings held on day one. The focus of each meeting will be listening to the concerns of our team members, addressing those concerns, introducing the mission statement (previously published), and providing clear expectations on how we will accomplish our mission.
One meeting will be with those team members on the enforcement side (deputies & detectives). The second meeting will be with our corrections (jailers) team members as well as the administrative staff. The last meeting(s) of the day with be with the people who are current inmates of the jail, I want to listen to everything they have to say and set clear expectations for both staff and inmates.
Also, on day 1 I will officially reopen the Christopher Robinson case and immediately request the Federal Bureau of Investigations to take the case.
Day 2 – INTERNAL AUDIT & INVENTORY (Day 2 -30)
On day two I will begin a FULL internal audit. This audit will include every aspect of the Sheriff’s Office. We will assess every detail from the status of each open case down to the amount of storage the network has available. I will also be ordering the start of a 100% inventory. Every piece of evidence will be accounted for, every piece of equipment will be located and accessed, every single penny of the budget will be accounted for.
Day 3 – REQUEST AUDITS
On day three I will be requesting audits from every available outside source including but not limited to the quorum court, CLEST, ACIC, ALA, DOJ, etc. The purpose of this is to establish a clean baseline and provide transparency to the people of Lawrence County.
Day 4 – ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD/INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEMBER MEETINGS/HIRING BOARD
Day four will consist of three of the most important things that I intend to bring to our Sheriff’s Office. The first is to begin the necessary research to establish the Sheriff’s Accountability Board. This will be a board comprised of volunteer citizens of Lawerence County whose entire purpose is to hold me, the sheriff, responsible for concerns related to my office.
I will also begin meetings with individual team members on day four. These meetings are designed to understand the needs and concerns of our team members and assess their career goals as well as what is needed to meet those goals. This will also provide me with an opportunity in the future to address any concerns with performance. This will ensure an effective open-door policy, and I believe it will help reduce turnover, which is detrimental to the mission. It also allows me to ensure my people have what they need to serve the people of Lawrence County.
The last order of business on day four will be to establish a hiring board. The hiring board will consist of the following: one detective, one patrol sergeant, and one deputy. Once established I will instruct the board to begin researching and developing a law enforcement aptitude battery test specific to the Lawerence County Sheriff’s Office. The board will also be responsible for initial interviews conducted with candidates for employment with the Sheriff’s Office.
Day 5 – MEET WITH CONSTABLES
I will use the fifth day of my term to meet with the elected constables of the county. For years, our Constables, who are elected by the people of their townships, have been absolutely shunned by the leadership at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. This will never happen under my administration. I will build strong relationships with our Constables, and they will be considered an important part of our team. Ensuring those elected as Constables in our county are supported will go a long way in helping make sure the people of Lawrence County do not continue to experience ridiculous response times on calls for service.
Day 6 – THIRD PARTY CONTRACTS
On my sixth day in office, I will be contacting every single third party that provides any services to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office to start scheduling meetings with them. Every vendor that provides a service to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office is paid with tax money from the people of Lawrence County. These contracts will be heavily evaluated to determine if they serve the best interest of the people. If a vendor is too costly or failing to meet any portion of a contract, the contract will be renegotiated or terminated.
Day 7 – PUBLIC NOTIFICATION DAY
This day will be focused on setting up the social media accounts that will be used by the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. Almost every agency around Lawrence County has a social media platform that is used to update the public and provide better access to the people. The designed silence the current administration has used to avoid accountability will end this day. These accounts will give the people of Lawrence County a method of communication and level of transparency with our Sheriff’s Office that has never existed. This will also allow me, or a representative of my office, to update the public on how we deliver results.
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The above was provided to give a complete view of the first seven days spent in office. It also does not consider calls for service or other demands that will have to be handled in day-to-day law enforcement operations. Every day of the term will be busy. Changing an entire culture is no easy task, especially when that culture is rooted in the good ole boy system. Because I don’t believe that anyone cares to read the 0 – 100 itemize plan I will further list the plan by phases.
As listed above, Phase 1 will be focused on assessing the state of the Sheriff’s Office and stabilizing the personnel and budgetary issues and is planned to be the first 30 days in office. The following list is not all inclusive but gives an idea of the scope of assessment to be performed:
Administrative Side
Personnel files – 100% internal audit
Office equipment – 100% inventory
Accounts payable – 100% internal audit
Payments/fees/fines – 100% internal audit
Corrections Side
Equipment – 100% inventory
Security and safety measures – assess, development and implement fail safe plans and drills
Inmate Communication – 100% internal audit/ systems check
Jail Standards Compliance – meet then exceed
Transport Vehicles – 100% inventory and assessment
Enforcement Side
Radio communication – 100% inventory and assessment
Issued Equipment – 100% inventory and assessment
Report writing system – 100% internal audit
Closed & protected systems – 100% internal audit/ request outside audit
Vehicles – 100% inventory and assessment
Evidence – 100% inventory and assessment
Body armor – 100% inventory and assessment
Auxiliary Items
Non-patrol vehicles – 100% inventory and assessment
Dive team equipment – 100% inventory and assessment
Maintenance equipment – 100% inventory and assessment
Phase 2, which is planned to take place in the second 30 days in office, will begin with me reporting the assessment findings to the people of Lawrence County publicly. Along with these findings I will be presenting the plans to address any failures identified in phase one. Some of these changes could be more immediate as they relate to public safety, officer safety, and the overall functionality of the sheriff’s office. The following are some issues that will be addressed as soon as possible:
Vehicle Safety
While I was employed at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office it was common for deputies to respond to emergency calls with cracked windshields, patched tires, faulty lights, and sirens as well as other serious issues. My own patrol vehicle had a faulty brake booster for approximately eight months despite this issue constantly being reported to leadership.
I will be implementing an actual fleet maintenance program that will make sure all the vehicles paid for by our taxpayers are expertly maintained, especially the patrol vehicles that our deputies will be counting on to serve and protect our people.
Shift Coverage
As a deputy at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, I worked hundreds of hours on patrol overnight alone. The current administration fails to manage personnel appropriately. Even after working my regular day shift hours as a detective I would still try to come out and work overnight with deputies if I found out they were on shift alone. Once elected this will not happen. If a shift is short, I will work it myself. I will also find time to work alongside my people on holidays. At no time will our county be left without the proper amount of law enforcement personnel needed to serve it.
Mutal Aid Agreements
Every mutual aid agreement that our Sheriff’s Office has will be re-evaluated and updated to serve the best interest of both the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and the other organization.
Civil Papers Will No Longer Be Served
In Lawrence County we have a huge problem providing proper coverage to the county. This problem is exasperated by having our deputies become civil process servers. Sheriff Waldrupe has our taxpayer funded deputies and their patrol vehicles out doing the jobs of civil process servers. That is going to end.
Firstly, every single Lawrence County Sheriff’s Deputy makes less per year than the average income of those who perform civil service across the state. If you want them to do the job, then you should pay them for that.
Secondly, the people of Lawrence County want their law enforcement out working to interdict and apprehend those who cause harm to our community, not serving yet another taxpayer with a lawsuit from some bank or credit card company.
What we will do is serve the actual court papers that fall into the scope of our authority. Warrants, Orders of Protection, Commitment Orders, and Evictions/Writs of Possession, if Constitutional, will be served by our people.
County Coverage
While Lawrence County is not anywhere near the biggest county in our state, its unique geographical layout and infrastructure makeup contribute to how hard it is to provide reliable coverage to the people of Lawrence County. These issues are either ignored or overlooked by the current administration which results in terrible response times, unsolved cases, and a general lack of safety and security for the people of our county.
Here is my answer as to how I am going to solve these issues:
1. For years, our Constables, who are elected by the voters in their townships, have been ignored by the current Sheriff. I will make sure they are empowered to do their jobs and made to feel as though they are part of the team. This will increase law enforcement presence in our county overnight.
2. I’m going to make sure there are four deputies out during our night shifts as opposed to the typically two. Not only will this give us better coverage for the county, but it will keep our deputies safer and share the workload.
3. I’ll do it myself. I will work with my teammates. My people. Asking my team to cover a county the size of ours understaffed would be irresponsible and bad leadership; we have had enough of that. If elected I will be a working Sheriff. I will personally work the short shifts. That is how leading from the front is done.
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Some months ago, I sent a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. I requested a list of calls and their response time over the period of a few months. I was told that the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office does not have or keep those records. I knew this when I sent the request.
The idea that the Sheriff’s Office is not tracking something so simple in an emergency response field as their own response to service times is ridiculous. Data is everything. How are we supposed to improve any of our stats if we are not measuring ourselves against any standard?
Phase 3 will be meticulously tracking data across a multitude of points. This phase will be carried out the entire time I’m in office. From response times and engine hours to number of applications and gallons of fuel used EVERYTHING will be tracked. This phase will not only allow me to see the areas that need work but also allow me to show the people of this county exactly what their tax dollars are being used for.
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This first 100-day plan still doesn’t do justice to the betterment that I will bring to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. The amount of work that it will take to right wrongs, undo years of fake “leadership,” and change an entire culture will be never ending. It’s time for Lawrence County Law Enforcement to get an overhaul. In a four-year term there are 1,460 days, I plan to use every single one of them to deliver the level of service from law enforcement our county’s people deserve.