New sheriff, major discuss new policies, first month on job

“I was ready to pull my hair out,” said Thomas.

Despite the early technical issues, Thomas and Burns said they have been shooting for June 1 “to have everything running like we want it to run.” They said this past week that they feel they’re ahead of schedule in meeting that goal.

“I feel we’re way ahead of what I was looking at back in November and December,” said Thomas.

In his first few weeks on the job, the new sheriff said he has reviewed a number of department policies, including a change to how the department handles police chases. Madison County deputies arrested two men Jan. 6 after a high-speed chase in Hull.

“The policy for the last several years was that we don’t ever force anyone off the road,” said Burns. “Well, we give these guys guns and we give them cars and the authority to arrest people.”

Burns said that if somebody “just robbed a bank and killed four people,” then the sheriff’s department doesn’t need to violate its own policy by knocking the criminal off the road.

“Where deadly force would be justified, we can knock them off the road as long as it doesn’t endanger us or the general public,” said Burns. “Certain criteria have to be met. It would be no different than shooting somebody with a pistol. You can use your car as a deadly weapon. It (the new policy) doesn’t hem ourselves in a corner saying we would never, ever do this.”

Burns said the department is intent on taking a “proactive approach to law enforcement.”

“We don’t want to be reactive to everything that happens,” said Burns. “You know, somebody hangs himself in the jail, well, we need some more help in the jail. No, we needed the help before he hung himself. Somebody gets shot. We need patrol rifles. No, we needed patrol rifles five years ago when the bank robbery happened in Los Angeles. We don’t want somebody having a wreck because a patrol car has 200,000 miles on it and then us saying, ‘well, we need patrol cars.’ No, we needed patrol cars six months ago.”

Burns cited the new home security checks offered by the department as an example of proactive police work. When county residents go out of town for any extended period, they can stop by the sheriff’s office and fill out a “request for security check” form that lets deputies know they need to provide extra patrol by their homes during a certain period of time. The request will last for a period of 30 days from the time the form is filled out, but can be extended.

Burns said another recent change was the restructuring of shifts to get more deputies on the road during busier hours of the day, a move that Thomas said has allowed traffic patrol units to focus more on traffic safety issues.

“We reorganized the shifts and we actually have more people on patrol during the peak times, from seven in the morning until 11 or 12 at night when we’re busy, instead of having five or six people at 4 or 5 in the morning during the dead time,” said Burns.

Thomas said there are more changes in the works. He said he’s working on getting a school resource officer at the high school and that he also wants to establish a sheriff’s department website, adding that both matters depend on how much money is available.

“I’m trying to get a website set up,” said Thomas. “The sex offender registry would be on there. We’d put a form on there where if people had a complaint or a compliment they could send it to us. We could let them know on the site what’s going on, if we’re having problem areas, problems with burglaries, thefts, anything like that.”

Of course, law enforcement officials in any area of the country are going to face challenges as the economy declines. Thomas said the economic downturn has increased certain calls.

“With the economy the way it is, burglaries and thefts and scams are going to go up,” said Thomas. “Any way somebody can get easy money is going to go up.”

Burns noted the problem of illegal prescription drug sales now.

“If you can sell 20 Lortabs and make you a hundred bucks, they’re going to do it,” said Burns. “A guy we caught the other night had 70 to 80 Lortabs.”

Budget concerns are also part of the economic downturn for all local departments. But the new sheriff and major said they recently received good news from the state, the fact that the county has been awarded a matching grant from the governor’s office for new body armor for deputies. They noted that the old body armor that some deputies now have is defective.

“We got guys walking around and their armor expired in 2003,” said Burns.

While the sheriff and major are getting acquainted with their new jobs, they said they are also trying to reach out to Madison County citizens to inform citizens of their actions.

“We want to keep the citizens informed on what we’re doing,” said Burns.

The new major added that he wanted “to clear something up here.”

He noted that he went to elementary school, middle school and high school in Madison County. He added that his wife is from Madison County, that they both have family in the county and intend to move back to Madison County as soon as possible, given the housing market.

“A lot of people think I’m not from here,” said Burns. “That’s a big misconception in a lot people’s eyes.”