Of the numerous questions Lowndes County Sheriff Mike Arledge fields daily, “How many deputies do you have?” seems to be the most prevalent. Arledge had the opportunity Thursday to answer the question in a public setting, hopefully satisfying the curious, if even for a moment.
“It’s difficult to answer this question because people assume that the word ‘deputy’ refers to someone they see on the streets,” Arledge said during the meeting of the Columbus Exchange Club. “We have more than 100 employees with the sheriff’s department and it is made up of several types of officers. Of these officers, we have 42 sworn deputies. But you will only see about 20 of them on the streets.”
Additional deputies are used in capacities ranging from airport and school security to criminal investigations.
Arledge, who was sworn into office in January said he implemented some changes in the department’s structure including four shifts of one supervisor and four officers. He said he had also changed the time his officers changed shifts due to a predictability among the county’s criminal element.
“When everyone changed shifts at one time, the criminals knew when the change was happening and used it as an opportunity to commit crimes,” Arledge said. “People think most crime is committed at night, but it’s committed during the day. By staggering our shifts, we have officers coming off and on shifts throughout the day.”
One of the objectives Arledge hoped to achieve was teamwork among his departmental divisions: jail, narcotics, enforcement and investigation.
“When I went in to the department, I stressed teamwork, networking and getting to know the public,” he said. “I’m amazed at how well the department has been working together.”
But creating harmony among his department wasn’t Arledge’s only goal; he also hoped for a proactive public, telling his employees “to get to know the public.”
One way Arledge hopes to engage the public is through education.
“We really want to get the public involved, he said. “We are offering gun safety classes and we plan to be very involved with Market Street this year and we are using Facebook. We are also bringing back the Sheriff’s Citizens Academy and hope to have it going by the middle of June. It will probably be a 10-week course with two or three hours of class one night a week. I think it’s one of the best things we can do. It allows you to become a part of what we do.”
Large-scale drug bust have become an almost common occurrence in the county and Arledge praised the narcotics work of his department as well as outside agencies.
“We have three deputies assigned to the narcotics division,” Arledge said. “We are in an inter-local agreement with the city, which provides two officers. We are actually in charge of the narcotics division. One of our agents is a contract agent with the (Drug Enforcement Agency) and (Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics). We have had 2-3 of the largest drug busts in Lowndes County history in the past few weeks.”
Arledge said almost $30,000 has been seized in cash which will be used to purchase tazers for all officers and to replace patrol vehicles.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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