Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
To candidate Dave Cooper, the race for Bedford County sheriff can be boiled down to one word: money.
After all, at least three of the five candidates have each raised more money than retiring Sheriff Carl Wells spent running for office in his entire 20-year career.
Mike Brown, who is running as a Republican, has raised about $30,000 - an amount that rivals the coffers of some General Assembly candidates.
``I thought this was a sheriff's race, not a presidential race,'' Cooper said. ``I just hope the people in Bedford County are not for sale, that they'll vote for the person and not the dollar he's spending.
``If that's not the case, then I won't have a chance.''
Cooper can rest easy on one count: According to some of his opponents, money won't make the voters decide.
But confidence will.
``I think there's a certain amount of mistrust that has formed for the Sheriff's Office,'' said candidate Darryl Updike. ``The feedback I'm getting from certain levels of the community is that they feel the sheriff's department has let them down some. ... they definitely want change.''
Said Brown: ``There's a lack of confidence and respect for the Sheriff's Office. ... That's why I decided to run, and that's why I want to be elected.
``I was born and raised in Big Island. I can rememember the warm and safe feeling in the county in the '40s, '50s and '60s. I don't remember ever locking a door; [but] in talking to citizens since I've been running, I was basically told this feeling isn't there anymore.
``They're concerned about drug-related violence, assaults in school, burgalaries, vandalism.''
Said Doug Maynard: ``According to the citizens I'm talking to ... they want a change. They don't want to have to have their police shown in a bad light constantly in the press.''
Over the past few years, Wells' administration was rocked by reports of deputies drinking on duty. It also suffered from a battle Wells fought with the Board of Supervisors over $15,000 in interest he accrued from depositing employee payroll funds into his personal checking account.
Though the practice was legal at the time Wells began doing it, it was since outlawed. Wells eventually repaid the county $2,000.
More importantly, crime in Bedford County has risen by almost 25 percent in three years. And out of the 87 Virginia sheriff's offices that are full-fledged law-enforcement agencies, only five had a worse record for solving thefts and burglaries last year than Bedford County's.
Some people say that's a natural outgrowth of being the fastest growing locality west of Interstate 95. Others, like Cooper and Chuck Reid, believe it may be a result of increased drug traffic coming out of Roanoke and Lynchburg.
But either way, all five candidates say not enough's being done to combat it.
The main issue is manpower. The Sheriff's Office has 16 road deputies and four investigators to work a 770-square-mile county with more than 50,000 residents.
Wells has said he's had trouble getting extra money from the county and state for more deputies. Sometimes, when one area of the county gets busy, other areas go without a deputy on a regular patrol.
In their campaign platforms, each candidate has come up with a solution to the problem.
Brown proposes using citizen volunteers to patrol in their own cars and report crimes to police by cellular phone. Cooper thinks using an auxiliary police force of retired officers and seeking local money for overtime would be the answer.
Maynard suggests dividing the county into four patrol areas that would be regularly manned.
For Reid, it's staggering shifts and paying Sheriff's Office employees, including dispatchers and paper servers, to take up patrols on their days off.
Updike proposes having more deputies work in high-crime areas or during periods of peak calls for help.
``It's obvious there's problems,'' Maynard said, ``and you could go on and on about the problems ... but they all lead to a need for policy change in the department.
``The department needs to be brought into the 20th century. We haven't made it to the 21st century yet. It's knocking on the door and the [Sheriff's Office] has got to be prepared to go into the 21st century.
``That's where my platform comes in. We need a major reorganization of the department from the top to the bottom ... policies and procedures, accountability with each individual officer, time sheets, cooperation with surrounding jurisdictions. ... I could go on and on.''
Said Brown: ``There's a feeling across the county that the Sheriff's Office has to progress, that it's not as innovative or progressive as it could be.
``You've got to have somebody innovative there. You need a person who can communicate with the community and who can administer the office. I want to restore the confidence and respect to the sheriff's department that has been lost, and I think the sheriff's department deserves it. There's a lot of great people there, and it could be one of the best in the state.''
Reid and Cooper, who both work in the Sheriff's Office, agree that changes need to be made. But they hope to convince voters that a candidate with experience inside the office is better than one who has never worked there or who hasn't worked there in a long time.
``A sheriff's department is run entirely different than the state police or the city police or the FBI,'' Reid said. ``It's kind of hard for me to believe that someone from outside can jump in and make changes, and know where they need to be made, when I already know where to start.''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB