Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Georgia Sheriff's Association is comprised of one
hundred and fifty nine elected sheriffs. Georgia Sheriff's Association also
relies on the financial support of the seventy thousand honorary
members who believe in the office of the Sheriff and
its mission to preserve the peace in our communities. I
recently visited the Georgia Sheriff Association in Madison, Georgia, where
I talked with Terry Norris, who is the executive director.
(00:33):
Terry Norris from the Georgia Shriffs Associates, it's good to
be here.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good to see you, mister Clark.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's great to be here. You got a nice place
here too.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you. I here since this I'll cover will be
three years.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
What goes on in this building, it does, it's beautiful.
It's a beautiful building. It tell us about the Sheriff's Association.
You telling me things as the shrifes do now that
people just need to realize and understand. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
So the Georgia Sheriff's Association was established in about nineteen
fifty four. It was established to help the elected sheriff
come together and learn about the responsibilities of the office
and to become more professional because I guess, as you
would think, back in the fifties, there wasn't a lot
of organized professionalism and groups to do that. So this
(01:18):
became the organization, the professional organization for the elected sheriff.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Only elected sheriffs can be members. They become voting members
of the association.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So in today's world, you're in the headquarters here in Madison, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It's a new headquarters.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
There are actually four organizations under this one roof the association.
The Sheriff's Association, I should say, has a robust training component,
and that training capability happens mine large here in a
good training space.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I'll show you a little later.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
So we're happy to be here, and we're happy to
help our public understand the officer sheriff and the many
nuances and responsibilities of that office because it's quite unique
in many of the things they do, nobody else does.
So it's always good to help the public understand that.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Does it help, Like you're the association, so you can
kind of help all the sheriffs operate in certain ways,
even though they operate separately in some ways operated to
a certain way. All across the state, all one hundred
sreet nine.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Counties, right, they all have precisely the same responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
A little bit of background on the officer sheriff. The
sheriff is an.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Autonomous public official. The sheriff's office is not a department
of county governments. The sheriffs do not work for county governments.
The county governing authorities must fund the officer sheriff, but
the sheriff is an independent of the decisions by the
county commissions otherwise. So, throughout the history of our state,
(02:57):
sheriffs have been the ones the sheriff's offices have been
the agencies that have been given multiple, multiple responsibilities through
the General Assembly. So if you look at our code
and our state, our statute, our code books will if
you did a word search, you find that sheriffs and
sheriff's offices and deputy sheriffs are mentioned or cited six
(03:21):
hundred plus times.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Add the sites for everybody else that is a law
enforcement entity in our state, it's about the same.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So doesn't mean sheriff's offices are more important to anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
It just means that they've been given more responsibilities over
the years, and their responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Are highly unique. Nobody else does many of these things.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Right, they do. They really are. Especially you know, some
of the larger counties, the sheriff is mounds of jail
and the courts and all that. But then in the
smaller counties they do everything. They're patrolling everything. How does
that work?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
That is true of however, the every sheriff, as I said,
has the exact same responsibility.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
The difference is in some of your larger metro.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Counties there there are many municipal police departments, but even
more importantly in regards to what sheriffs do, there are
county police departments. So in those counties, a lot of
times the sheriff does not answer the calls, but that
sheriff does. In your like I said, in your larger counties,
that county, that sheriff is gonna it's gonna handle the courthouse.
(04:22):
It's gonna handle the courthouse security, which they all do.
It's gonna serve papers on the civil side, it's gonna
have looked for the fugitives, and it's gonna run to
jail and many and registered sex offenders.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And a lot of other things that every one of
them do.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So really it's the same responsibility, but it has to
do with resources in that particular county.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
And the sheriff is elected position.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Now well, yes, sir, they run with the president every
four years. In fact, as you know, we just had
a presidential election, so all of the sheriffs they ran
it last year at the same time that the president did.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
In every four years, after.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
The general elect, the Sheriff's Association conducts four weeks of
specialized training for the newly elected sheriffs to go through
all of the nuances and requirements of that officer sheriff.
Now four weeks sounds like a long time. Sometimes it's
not long enough. There is so much they must do.
So we had thirty nine in this last class, and
(05:19):
that's really about average. We get those about every four years,
that number. But it's a good experience for these guys
to meet each other and also to recognize how significant
their position is as the elected sheriff.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So when they come in they've become a sheriff, you
guys handle the training for them at that point. But
being the sheriff do. Some of them come from other
backgrounds or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Occasionally most of them by and large, or former law
enforcement officers of some sort. But every newly elected sheriff
must come to this particular training. So in addition to that,
if under law that was existing prior to July one,
(06:04):
you could run for sheriff and not have been in
law enforcement or a certified peace officer. And for the
most part, the new law will require that if you
run for sheriff, you must go and take the necessary
training and become certified before you can run for office.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Before you can qualify, And that's branding.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's something the sheriffs have worked on for a long
time and finally got it accomplished this time.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Because you need that, I would think you need to
decide to be you better be qualified.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, under the old law you had six months to
go get the training. Well, the training was eleven and
twelve weeks, So it would be hard for someone who
had never been in law enforcement to win the election
and then have to be gone for.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Half of the time in the first six months. You
don't even know. They wouldn't even.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Know necessarily who worked in the sheriff's officer much about it?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes, yes, you definitely. How about the what haveen if
a sheriff dies or equits or whatever, who takes it
over for him? Well, until they have any elections.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, if there's a vacancy in the office, and a
vacancy in the office would be if someone quit, if
someone died held office, or if someone was convicted of
an offense, they would be removed. So those are all
vacancies in the office. And when that happens, if there
was a chief deputy sheriff named by that sheriff who
vacated the office, and that chief deputy sheriff would become
(07:28):
the sheriff until there could be held a special election
and then at that point the newly elected person would
assume those responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And this has been a while back. I know there's
some problems with the saff a sheriff in the office
somewhere and the governor appointed a separate panel of other
sheriffs to investigate that. How did that work?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Correct?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
That is, if there are allegations of misfeasans, malfeasance or wrongdoing,
then the governor can appoint two sheriffs and the attorney
general to look at that situation. Now, that situation, that
scenario does not allow the governor to remove someone only
to suspend that person for a short period of time
(08:11):
and then be allowed to return once that particular those
allegations have been resolved. There are ways that district attorneys
could then file emotions with spirit court that could be
hearings and that person could be removed. And interestingly enough,
back in the I'm guessing the seventies. I've only been
(08:32):
here since ninety five, but I think during the seventies
the sheriffs actually went to the General Assembly and asked
for the passage of that legislation to help monitor themselves,
because when one sheriff, or one peace officer, or one
chief of police, or one elected official of any sort
conducts himself in a manner less than honorable or by
(08:57):
lace of law, then it hurts all of them. Yes,
this is an im port of bill that's been used
a number of times.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Over the years.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What else you do with the Georgia Sheriff's Association. You
can convention coming up, but what do you do about
talk about that too.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, we do a lot of training.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
As I said, there are three conferences we hold training
conferences we hold annually for the elected sheriff, and then
there's about seven other training events, conferences and other events
we hold for and conduct for people who work for sheriffs,
deputy sheriffs, jailer's administrative staff. Because, as I said, the
(09:33):
sheriffs have unique responsibilities that nobody else has, so we
train on those unique responsibilities. But annually on the three
sheriffs Conferences, we come to bring them together, we talk
about any issues they've got out there.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
We bring a lot of times we'll bring in.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
State officials to talk about things that state government is
doing that affects the officer sheriff. And another thing the
Sheriff's Association does is we go to the capital every
year during session and we deal with trying to promote
good public safety policy and legislation which is sensible in
(10:13):
terms of sheriffs and really police chiefs too and police
departments performing public safety and law enforcement functions. And as
I said, so many responsibilities that sheriffs do is codified now,
so a lot of times any change in some of
these laws could affect what they do. And the bottom
line is this, you and I, as local property taxpayers,
(10:36):
pay for the officer sheriff. The state doesn't fund the
officer sheriff. So if laws pass that create mandates that
are not funded, then your count of governing authority has
to provide that money to the count and we pay
it as local So we're always watching to see what
kind of legislation is coming forth that might create an
(10:57):
additional cost to the camp county that may be negligible
in terms of the effectiveness of creating good law enforcement policy.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
That brings us minded. When a sheriff has to call
out some resources outside the county and they have to
pay for it, that can be new expenses. How do
they handle those expenses like that?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, as I said, sheriffs are autonomous. They don't work
for the county commission. County commission must by law fund
their budgets, and their budgets are extreme a lot of times.
If you think about it, there's one hundred and fifty
nine counties in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
One hundred and forty two.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Of those counties there is a county jail. The other
counties don't have a jail. They use the jail of
surrounding county. So in counties and all counties, but particularly
in counties where there's a jail, that cost of that
sheriff's office with that jail represents the biggest piece of
that county budget that you and I pay for, so
(11:56):
it limits the discretionary money that county commissions can use
for other things. So if there's a need outside the county,
sheriffs are not I mean that sheriffs have sheriffs and
deputy sheriffs have statewide authought rest authority. So honestly, they
go and if there's a natural disaster of some disaster
(12:20):
called then.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
They can recover that money through FEMA Genia.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But a lot of times on small operations where if
there's a fugitive, there's no repayment from one county to
another for a sheriff, they just help each other. And unfortunately,
the cause of the nature of local law enforcement, and
I speak for the police departments too, because of the
nature our people answer calls. They're the ones that are
(12:48):
always there before the crisis has been resolved and the
scene is safe. So by virtue of them being the
first on the scene are local deputy sheriffs and our
local police officers, unfortunately are the ones who really get
injured and killed.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Most so we spend a lot of time unfortunately in
the state.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
My thirty years, we've been to a lot of law
enforcement funerals, and when something happens of that nature where
an alcer gets killed or injured, then you will find
everybody shows up to try to help, and you don't
really worry about expenses because it is an emergency situation.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, talk about that personnel. Are they understaff still now?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, for the most part, our sheriff's offices are understaff,
and it's very difficult to hire anybody these days. During
the Nathan Dill administration, he rightfully took some measures that
allowed state law enforcement officers to get pretty significant increases
in salaries. Most of the counties lagged behind that. So
(13:57):
when that happened, quite naturally, a lot of deputy ship
and police officers, you know, they saw a better path
for their family. It's safer path and a more lucrative
benefit package. So we have had a hard time and
that does hurt us a little bit because, as I said,
they're the ones that answer the calls of the nine
(14:17):
on one calls.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Do you help them get people deputies and things like
that too?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
On the periphery, I mean we try to promote that.
We tried. We've done a few things online and.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Uh through podcasts to try to promote different sheriff's officers.
And they really do that on the in themselves because
they go to job fairs or they do all kinds
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
You've seen billboards, yeah, yeah, you see TV commercials now too, everything,
every radio commercials, everything now just to get got to
get people. What about the training do you help train
those officers, the new officers coming to the scheff swarmer
is that separately.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Well, everybody has to be mandated that you go to
a basic mandate course which has just been expanded, so
that kind of trend in filing and other things, criminal
procedure and all that is done either locally at the
Sheriff's office or prior to becoming a deputy share. But
we do have a robust training division, as I've said,
(15:13):
and we do specialized training. For instance, Sheriff's offices are
the only entity in our state who monitor and track
sex offenders, so we and we that's codified, so we
have to do it. So that is probably one of
our biggest training events of annually is to bring in
the sex offender Registry deputies and others, and there's you know,
(15:36):
sometimes two to three.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Hundred people there.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
The other thing about training local deputy sheriffs and jailers
is that you know, there's a constant change in who
works where, reassignments and all, so we have to train
and retrain. We also have a very robust jail training initiative,
so we train jailers and jail administrators and all that too.
(15:59):
Courthouse secure we do training in that area, service of
civil papers, serving civil papers, We have that kind of
so we we we As far as the training for
the deputies and other staff, it's all specialized for what
they have to do, uh as required by law.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Because I guess you don't just count that guy that's
out there on the road in the car out there
coming coming coming to you. You call the other people
backing him up. That's that don't go out there. Look
like the dispatchery everybody. You have to train all of them.
That I didn't think about that.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
We don't do much on the dispatch side. That's not
one side. But uh, we do all these other as
I said, other.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Things they have to do. We've done some.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Active shooter training and that kind of stuff, but a
lot of that specialized stuff occurs at the local level
with that sheriff's office because you got active shooter stuff
on swat stuff and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It's a team concept, uh.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I like the way they work together. I know they
you know, call other counties that they need them, they
come over, and that's that's great that it seems like
a camaraderie.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
You know it is, and you know, no disrespect to
anybody else, but they're closer. Sheriffs are closer as a
group than say police chiefs or state agency heads. And
there's a reason for that because if you think about
local police departments, they all work the chiefs and the
police department of police officers. They work for a city
(17:19):
or a county. Each city in county is different, so
their priorities are based upon who they work for. In
the case of the office of sheriff and sheriffs, their
duties are defined in the code and case law. They
all have precisely the same situation. They all are autonomous.
They don't work for the county commission. Their deputies are
(17:41):
not employees of the county. Their sheriff's officers are not
departments of county.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Governments. So they're more cohesive because of that likeness or.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
That identical nature of what they have to do in
their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Now you also have the Sheriff Youth Home. Oh yes, yeah,
talk about that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's a true story. It's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
I happened to be the executive director of that organization too.
It's a it's a separate five oh one c three
private nonprofit organization.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
As is the Sheriff's Association.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So that the Youth Homes started as a result of
a handful of sheriffs in this state in the late
nineteen fifties and what they were seeing was boys that
were kind of running around getting in trouble by comparison
any trouble at all if you compare it today's.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
But they saw a.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Need to do something for these kids that are these
boys that maybe their parents didn't weren't able to care
for them. So they created the Georgia the Boys Ranch
and hey Hira, Georgia. That was the first campus, and
that organization that on one campus grew into five now.
So now the first campus was hey Hira and Lounges County.
(18:58):
The second campus is up in Dalton and Whitfield County.
The third campus was over in Lagrange in Trup County.
The fourth campus was down in Emmanuel County, a little
place called Nunez, Georgia, out near I sixteen.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
And then the fifth campus is over Murray County.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
So these are children that are not adjudicated guilty, and
there are really kids that their families are unable to
take care of them. Most of them are defacts children
and right now it's the summertime, they're.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Getting ready to go back to school.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We'll get a few more, but there's around forty children
that live with us full time.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
For years, we have generated enough funding.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Through gifts and wills and all to create a college fund.
So we've been sending these kids to college for probably
twenty years. So it is a wonderful example of people
taking care of people. It's strict through the generosity of
many thousands of Georgians over the years who have contributed
(20:05):
to the Youth Homes, and our fundraising for the most
part is still through direct mail. However, we do raise
some money through wills and estates and people are all
in special events too, So there's about forty special events
throughout the state. Most of the time the sheriffs have
organized these events. But you think about it this way,
(20:26):
it's just the budget for the youth homes is five
and a half million dollars, and it's a big budget.
And none of this could have happened had the public
and our state, the citizens of our state not recognize
the significance and importance of the officer sheriff and the
fact of the fact that they had confidence in their
(20:47):
elected sheriff made them have confidence that we would take
these funds over the years and do right things for
children who, by no fault of their own, were down trotten.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And needed a place to stay.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
So we provide a safe and wholesome home for children
in need.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
How if a child was to be involved in that
and get in get in the what are the qualifications,
what ages and so forth?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Well we I mean the qualifications are.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
We've expanded them over the years because we've taken sibling
groups with you know, children as young as six. But
as I said, most of these children come through defects,
so we get uh get those referrals. We do private
placements and if the family can't afford for them to
be there, then we'll just take care of them. But
they do have to sign over the guardianship to the
(21:34):
youth homes. So but it really is I mean I
happen to sit at the top of that little pyramids,
but it's I'm not the one that does the work.
Is those people that work for the youth homes that
deal day to day with.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
These the needs of these children.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Every campus has, uh it's a campus setting with an
individual home setting within that setting, and they have house parents.
They live in a home that's not locked down. There's
not cameras everywhere. Uh, these are kids that can be
helped that won't to be helped.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And do they go to school there in in the camp.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
No, No, they go to public school. They play football,
you know, they.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Got a church on Sunday with their their their family
at the youth home. So they're you know, they have
as a normal life as they can possibly have. And
the saddest thing is this, and our people tell us
this when we get these children, a lot of times
they have nothing and they have had nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So they have they.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Have they have complete change of clothes, toothbrushes, deal. I
mean a lot of them hadn't bathe. I mean, it's
just a sad thing. But the whole, the whole key
here is to put them in a whole, wholesome, loving,
safe environment and give them an opportunity to succeed. Because,
as one of my friends once told me, that children
(22:58):
spell love t I m me and that's what we're
giving them. Time to grow up and become responsible adults.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Have any of them ever become a sheriff, deputy or anything.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yeah, we've had a few that become depty sheriff. We've
had one that we set to med school years ago.
He's a doctor North. Now we've had military kids, I
mean kids that left and joined the military.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
So many many successes.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Oh man, that's great. Now, where can people go to
find out more information on the youth homes if they
want to donate and give money.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Georgia Sheriff's Youth dot or would be our I mean
our website, ask your Sheriff, youriff, and we always need
contributions and donations. There's also I mentioned there are four
organizations here. One is the Sheriff's Association, one separate one
is the Georgia Sheriff's Youth Homes. We also have the
(23:50):
Georgia Sheriff Youth Homes Foundation that's a house out of here.
And the public retirement fund for the elected sheriff, it's
the Sheriff Retirement Fund of Georgia.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It's out of here at Madison too.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
So when we get out of here, I'll walk you around,
let you look at a few things.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
But we're very proud of this facility.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah you should be. It's a beautiful place. It really is.
Well in the last three minutes that we have, is
there anything else we need to know about the sheriffs
or they need anything from us? What can we do?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
The thing that is most appealing to our time together
today is to try to help the public understand that
the sheriff is autonomous. He's an elect He or she's
an elected official that they elected, and when everybody else
goes home, the sheriff's office and the deputies are there.
You may not like the result you get from, you know,
(24:39):
a crisis situation, but I encourage everybody to talk to
that sheriff because their sheriffs are more connected to the
community than any other local or state entity, and sheriffs
are by nature of that, they're the most popular. If
you look at the elections every four years, you'll see
(25:00):
that about sheriff Rice and your county is going the
man the most attention.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, well, Terry, I appreciate you taking time and show me,
show me around and show me in a minute, but
to talk to me about this, I was really interested
to know and I'm glad I found out, especially the
youth homes. That's great, that's great.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
We want to help and in the future, if you
need us, need to talk to someone else, then you
call us.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
That's Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriff's Association.
You can find out more at Georgiashriffs dot org. You
can find out more about Georgia Sheriff's youth Homes at
Georgiashriffs Youth dot org. The questions of comments on today's program,
you can email me, John Clark at georgeannwsnetwork dot com.
Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week right
here in your favorite local radio station on Georgia Focus.
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Georgia Sheriff's Association is comprised of one
hundred and fifty nine elected sheriffs. Georgia Sheriff's Association also
relies on the financial support of the seventy thousand honorary
members who believe in the office of the Sheriff and
its mission to preserve the peace in our communities. I
recently visited the Georgia Sheriff Association in Madison, Georgia, where
I talked with Terry Norris, who is the executive director.
(00:33):
Terry Norris from the Georgia Shriffs Associates, it's good to
be here.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good to see you, mister Clark.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's great to be here. You got a nice place
here too.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you. I here since this I'll cover will be
three years.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
What goes on in this building, it does, it's beautiful.
It's a beautiful building. It tell us about the Sheriff's Association.
You telling me things as the shrifes do now that
people just need to realize and understand. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
So the Georgia Sheriff's Association was established in about nineteen
fifty four. It was established to help the elected sheriff
come together and learn about the responsibilities of the office
and to become more professional because I guess, as you
would think, back in the fifties, there wasn't a lot
of organized professionalism and groups to do that. So this
(01:18):
became the organization, the professional organization for the elected sheriff.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Only elected sheriffs can be members. They become voting members
of the association.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So in today's world, you're in the headquarters here in Madison, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It's a new headquarters.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
There are actually four organizations under this one roof the association.
The Sheriff's Association, I should say, has a robust training component,
and that training capability happens mine large here in a
good training space.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I'll show you a little later.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
So we're happy to be here, and we're happy to
help our public understand the officer sheriff and the many
nuances and responsibilities of that office because it's quite unique
in many of the things they do, nobody else does.
So it's always good to help the public understand that.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Does it help, Like you're the association, so you can
kind of help all the sheriffs operate in certain ways,
even though they operate separately in some ways operated to
a certain way. All across the state, all one hundred
sreet nine.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Counties, right, they all have precisely the same responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
A little bit of background on the officer sheriff. The
sheriff is an.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Autonomous public official. The sheriff's office is not a department
of county governments. The sheriffs do not work for county governments.
The county governing authorities must fund the officer sheriff, but
the sheriff is an independent of the decisions by the
county commissions otherwise. So, throughout the history of our state,
(02:57):
sheriffs have been the ones the sheriff's offices have been
the agencies that have been given multiple, multiple responsibilities through
the General Assembly. So if you look at our code
and our state, our statute, our code books will if
you did a word search, you find that sheriffs and
sheriff's offices and deputy sheriffs are mentioned or cited six
(03:21):
hundred plus times.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Add the sites for everybody else that is a law
enforcement entity in our state, it's about the same.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So doesn't mean sheriff's offices are more important to anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
It just means that they've been given more responsibilities over
the years, and their responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Are highly unique. Nobody else does many of these things.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Right, they do. They really are. Especially you know, some
of the larger counties, the sheriff is mounds of jail
and the courts and all that. But then in the
smaller counties they do everything. They're patrolling everything. How does
that work?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
That is true of however, the every sheriff, as I said,
has the exact same responsibility.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
The difference is in some of your larger metro.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Counties there there are many municipal police departments, but even
more importantly in regards to what sheriffs do, there are
county police departments. So in those counties, a lot of
times the sheriff does not answer the calls, but that
sheriff does. In your like I said, in your larger counties,
that county, that sheriff is gonna it's gonna handle the courthouse.
(04:22):
It's gonna handle the courthouse security, which they all do.
It's gonna serve papers on the civil side, it's gonna
have looked for the fugitives, and it's gonna run to
jail and many and registered sex offenders.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And a lot of other things that every one of
them do.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So really it's the same responsibility, but it has to
do with resources in that particular county.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
And the sheriff is elected position.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Now well, yes, sir, they run with the president every
four years. In fact, as you know, we just had
a presidential election, so all of the sheriffs they ran
it last year at the same time that the president did.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
In every four years, after.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
The general elect, the Sheriff's Association conducts four weeks of
specialized training for the newly elected sheriffs to go through
all of the nuances and requirements of that officer sheriff.
Now four weeks sounds like a long time. Sometimes it's
not long enough. There is so much they must do.
So we had thirty nine in this last class, and
(05:19):
that's really about average. We get those about every four years,
that number. But it's a good experience for these guys
to meet each other and also to recognize how significant
their position is as the elected sheriff.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So when they come in they've become a sheriff, you
guys handle the training for them at that point. But
being the sheriff do. Some of them come from other
backgrounds or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Occasionally most of them by and large, or former law
enforcement officers of some sort. But every newly elected sheriff
must come to this particular training. So in addition to that,
if under law that was existing prior to July one,
(06:04):
you could run for sheriff and not have been in
law enforcement or a certified peace officer. And for the
most part, the new law will require that if you
run for sheriff, you must go and take the necessary
training and become certified before you can run for office.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Before you can qualify, And that's branding.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's something the sheriffs have worked on for a long
time and finally got it accomplished this time.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Because you need that, I would think you need to
decide to be you better be qualified.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, under the old law you had six months to
go get the training. Well, the training was eleven and
twelve weeks, So it would be hard for someone who
had never been in law enforcement to win the election
and then have to be gone for.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Half of the time in the first six months. You
don't even know. They wouldn't even.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Know necessarily who worked in the sheriff's officer much about it?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes, yes, you definitely. How about the what haveen if
a sheriff dies or equits or whatever, who takes it
over for him? Well, until they have any elections.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, if there's a vacancy in the office, and a
vacancy in the office would be if someone quit, if
someone died held office, or if someone was convicted of
an offense, they would be removed. So those are all
vacancies in the office. And when that happens, if there
was a chief deputy sheriff named by that sheriff who
vacated the office, and that chief deputy sheriff would become
(07:28):
the sheriff until there could be held a special election
and then at that point the newly elected person would
assume those responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And this has been a while back. I know there's
some problems with the saff a sheriff in the office
somewhere and the governor appointed a separate panel of other
sheriffs to investigate that. How did that work?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Correct?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
That is, if there are allegations of misfeasans, malfeasance or wrongdoing,
then the governor can appoint two sheriffs and the attorney
general to look at that situation. Now, that situation, that
scenario does not allow the governor to remove someone only
to suspend that person for a short period of time
(08:11):
and then be allowed to return once that particular those
allegations have been resolved. There are ways that district attorneys
could then file emotions with spirit court that could be
hearings and that person could be removed. And interestingly enough,
back in the I'm guessing the seventies. I've only been
(08:32):
here since ninety five, but I think during the seventies
the sheriffs actually went to the General Assembly and asked
for the passage of that legislation to help monitor themselves,
because when one sheriff, or one peace officer, or one
chief of police, or one elected official of any sort
conducts himself in a manner less than honorable or by
(08:57):
lace of law, then it hurts all of them. Yes,
this is an im port of bill that's been used
a number of times.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Over the years.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What else you do with the Georgia Sheriff's Association. You
can convention coming up, but what do you do about
talk about that too.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, we do a lot of training.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
As I said, there are three conferences we hold training
conferences we hold annually for the elected sheriff, and then
there's about seven other training events, conferences and other events
we hold for and conduct for people who work for sheriffs,
deputy sheriffs, jailer's administrative staff. Because, as I said, the
(09:33):
sheriffs have unique responsibilities that nobody else has, so we
train on those unique responsibilities. But annually on the three
sheriffs Conferences, we come to bring them together, we talk
about any issues they've got out there.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
We bring a lot of times we'll bring in.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
State officials to talk about things that state government is
doing that affects the officer sheriff. And another thing the
Sheriff's Association does is we go to the capital every
year during session and we deal with trying to promote
good public safety policy and legislation which is sensible in
(10:13):
terms of sheriffs and really police chiefs too and police
departments performing public safety and law enforcement functions. And as
I said, so many responsibilities that sheriffs do is codified now,
so a lot of times any change in some of
these laws could affect what they do. And the bottom
line is this, you and I, as local property taxpayers,
(10:36):
pay for the officer sheriff. The state doesn't fund the
officer sheriff. So if laws pass that create mandates that
are not funded, then your count of governing authority has
to provide that money to the count and we pay
it as local So we're always watching to see what
kind of legislation is coming forth that might create an
(10:57):
additional cost to the camp county that may be negligible
in terms of the effectiveness of creating good law enforcement policy.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
That brings us minded. When a sheriff has to call
out some resources outside the county and they have to
pay for it, that can be new expenses. How do
they handle those expenses like that?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, as I said, sheriffs are autonomous. They don't work
for the county commission. County commission must by law fund
their budgets, and their budgets are extreme a lot of times.
If you think about it, there's one hundred and fifty
nine counties in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
One hundred and forty two.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Of those counties there is a county jail. The other
counties don't have a jail. They use the jail of
surrounding county. So in counties and all counties, but particularly
in counties where there's a jail, that cost of that
sheriff's office with that jail represents the biggest piece of
that county budget that you and I pay for, so
(11:56):
it limits the discretionary money that county commissions can use
for other things. So if there's a need outside the county,
sheriffs are not I mean that sheriffs have sheriffs and
deputy sheriffs have statewide authought rest authority. So honestly, they
go and if there's a natural disaster of some disaster
(12:20):
called then.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
They can recover that money through FEMA Genia.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But a lot of times on small operations where if
there's a fugitive, there's no repayment from one county to
another for a sheriff, they just help each other. And unfortunately,
the cause of the nature of local law enforcement, and
I speak for the police departments too, because of the
nature our people answer calls. They're the ones that are
(12:48):
always there before the crisis has been resolved and the
scene is safe. So by virtue of them being the
first on the scene are local deputy sheriffs and our
local police officers, unfortunately are the ones who really get
injured and killed.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Most so we spend a lot of time unfortunately in
the state.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
My thirty years, we've been to a lot of law
enforcement funerals, and when something happens of that nature where
an alcer gets killed or injured, then you will find
everybody shows up to try to help, and you don't
really worry about expenses because it is an emergency situation.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, talk about that personnel. Are they understaff still now?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, for the most part, our sheriff's offices are understaff,
and it's very difficult to hire anybody these days. During
the Nathan Dill administration, he rightfully took some measures that
allowed state law enforcement officers to get pretty significant increases
in salaries. Most of the counties lagged behind that. So
(13:57):
when that happened, quite naturally, a lot of deputy ship
and police officers, you know, they saw a better path
for their family. It's safer path and a more lucrative
benefit package. So we have had a hard time and
that does hurt us a little bit because, as I said,
they're the ones that answer the calls of the nine
(14:17):
on one calls.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Do you help them get people deputies and things like
that too?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
On the periphery, I mean we try to promote that.
We tried. We've done a few things online and.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Uh through podcasts to try to promote different sheriff's officers.
And they really do that on the in themselves because
they go to job fairs or they do all kinds
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
You've seen billboards, yeah, yeah, you see TV commercials now too, everything,
every radio commercials, everything now just to get got to
get people. What about the training do you help train
those officers, the new officers coming to the scheff swarmer
is that separately.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Well, everybody has to be mandated that you go to
a basic mandate course which has just been expanded, so
that kind of trend in filing and other things, criminal
procedure and all that is done either locally at the
Sheriff's office or prior to becoming a deputy share. But
we do have a robust training division, as I've said,
(15:13):
and we do specialized training. For instance, Sheriff's offices are
the only entity in our state who monitor and track
sex offenders, so we and we that's codified, so we
have to do it. So that is probably one of
our biggest training events of annually is to bring in
the sex offender Registry deputies and others, and there's you know,
(15:36):
sometimes two to three.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Hundred people there.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
The other thing about training local deputy sheriffs and jailers
is that you know, there's a constant change in who
works where, reassignments and all, so we have to train
and retrain. We also have a very robust jail training initiative,
so we train jailers and jail administrators and all that too.
(15:59):
Courthouse secure we do training in that area, service of
civil papers, serving civil papers, We have that kind of
so we we we As far as the training for
the deputies and other staff, it's all specialized for what
they have to do, uh as required by law.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Because I guess you don't just count that guy that's
out there on the road in the car out there
coming coming coming to you. You call the other people
backing him up. That's that don't go out there. Look
like the dispatchery everybody. You have to train all of them.
That I didn't think about that.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
We don't do much on the dispatch side. That's not
one side. But uh, we do all these other as
I said, other.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Things they have to do. We've done some.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Active shooter training and that kind of stuff, but a
lot of that specialized stuff occurs at the local level
with that sheriff's office because you got active shooter stuff
on swat stuff and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It's a team concept, uh.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I like the way they work together. I know they
you know, call other counties that they need them, they
come over, and that's that's great that it seems like
a camaraderie.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
You know it is, and you know, no disrespect to
anybody else, but they're closer. Sheriffs are closer as a
group than say police chiefs or state agency heads. And
there's a reason for that because if you think about
local police departments, they all work the chiefs and the
police department of police officers. They work for a city
(17:19):
or a county. Each city in county is different, so
their priorities are based upon who they work for. In
the case of the office of sheriff and sheriffs, their
duties are defined in the code and case law. They
all have precisely the same situation. They all are autonomous.
They don't work for the county commission. Their deputies are
(17:41):
not employees of the county. Their sheriff's officers are not
departments of county.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Governments. So they're more cohesive because of that likeness or.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
That identical nature of what they have to do in
their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Now you also have the Sheriff Youth Home. Oh yes, yeah,
talk about that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's a true story. It's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
I happened to be the executive director of that organization too.
It's a it's a separate five oh one c three
private nonprofit organization.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
As is the Sheriff's Association.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So that the Youth Homes started as a result of
a handful of sheriffs in this state in the late
nineteen fifties and what they were seeing was boys that
were kind of running around getting in trouble by comparison
any trouble at all if you compare it today's.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
But they saw a.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Need to do something for these kids that are these
boys that maybe their parents didn't weren't able to care
for them. So they created the Georgia the Boys Ranch
and hey Hira, Georgia. That was the first campus, and
that organization that on one campus grew into five now.
So now the first campus was hey Hira and Lounges County.
(18:58):
The second campus is up in Dalton and Whitfield County.
The third campus was over in Lagrange in Trup County.
The fourth campus was down in Emmanuel County, a little
place called Nunez, Georgia, out near I sixteen.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
And then the fifth campus is over Murray County.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
So these are children that are not adjudicated guilty, and
there are really kids that their families are unable to
take care of them. Most of them are defacts children
and right now it's the summertime, they're.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Getting ready to go back to school.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We'll get a few more, but there's around forty children
that live with us full time.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
For years, we have generated enough funding.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Through gifts and wills and all to create a college fund.
So we've been sending these kids to college for probably
twenty years. So it is a wonderful example of people
taking care of people. It's strict through the generosity of
many thousands of Georgians over the years who have contributed
(20:05):
to the Youth Homes, and our fundraising for the most
part is still through direct mail. However, we do raise
some money through wills and estates and people are all
in special events too, So there's about forty special events
throughout the state. Most of the time the sheriffs have
organized these events. But you think about it this way,
(20:26):
it's just the budget for the youth homes is five
and a half million dollars, and it's a big budget.
And none of this could have happened had the public
and our state, the citizens of our state not recognize
the significance and importance of the officer sheriff and the
fact of the fact that they had confidence in their
(20:47):
elected sheriff made them have confidence that we would take
these funds over the years and do right things for
children who, by no fault of their own, were down trotten.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And needed a place to stay.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
So we provide a safe and wholesome home for children
in need.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
How if a child was to be involved in that
and get in get in the what are the qualifications,
what ages and so forth?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Well we I mean the qualifications are.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
We've expanded them over the years because we've taken sibling
groups with you know, children as young as six. But
as I said, most of these children come through defects,
so we get uh get those referrals. We do private
placements and if the family can't afford for them to
be there, then we'll just take care of them. But
they do have to sign over the guardianship to the
(21:34):
youth homes. So but it really is I mean I
happen to sit at the top of that little pyramids,
but it's I'm not the one that does the work.
Is those people that work for the youth homes that
deal day to day with.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
These the needs of these children.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Every campus has, uh it's a campus setting with an
individual home setting within that setting, and they have house parents.
They live in a home that's not locked down. There's
not cameras everywhere. Uh, these are kids that can be
helped that won't to be helped.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And do they go to school there in in the camp.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
No, No, they go to public school. They play football,
you know, they.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Got a church on Sunday with their their their family
at the youth home. So they're you know, they have
as a normal life as they can possibly have. And
the saddest thing is this, and our people tell us
this when we get these children, a lot of times
they have nothing and they have had nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So they have they.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Have they have complete change of clothes, toothbrushes, deal. I
mean a lot of them hadn't bathe. I mean, it's
just a sad thing. But the whole, the whole key
here is to put them in a whole, wholesome, loving,
safe environment and give them an opportunity to succeed. Because,
as one of my friends once told me, that children
(22:58):
spell love t I m me and that's what we're
giving them. Time to grow up and become responsible adults.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Have any of them ever become a sheriff, deputy or anything.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yeah, we've had a few that become depty sheriff. We've
had one that we set to med school years ago.
He's a doctor North. Now we've had military kids, I
mean kids that left and joined the military.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
So many many successes.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Oh man, that's great. Now, where can people go to
find out more information on the youth homes if they
want to donate and give money.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Georgia Sheriff's Youth dot or would be our I mean
our website, ask your Sheriff, youriff, and we always need
contributions and donations. There's also I mentioned there are four
organizations here. One is the Sheriff's Association, one separate one
is the Georgia Sheriff's Youth Homes. We also have the
(23:50):
Georgia Sheriff Youth Homes Foundation that's a house out of here.
And the public retirement fund for the elected sheriff, it's
the Sheriff Retirement Fund of Georgia.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It's out of here at Madison too.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
So when we get out of here, I'll walk you around,
let you look at a few things.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
But we're very proud of this facility.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah you should be. It's a beautiful place. It really is.
Well in the last three minutes that we have, is
there anything else we need to know about the sheriffs
or they need anything from us? What can we do?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
The thing that is most appealing to our time together
today is to try to help the public understand that
the sheriff is autonomous. He's an elect He or she's
an elected official that they elected, and when everybody else
goes home, the sheriff's office and the deputies are there.
You may not like the result you get from, you know,
(24:39):
a crisis situation, but I encourage everybody to talk to
that sheriff because their sheriffs are more connected to the
community than any other local or state entity, and sheriffs
are by nature of that, they're the most popular. If
you look at the elections every four years, you'll see
(25:00):
that about sheriff Rice and your county is going the
man the most attention.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, well, Terry, I appreciate you taking time and show me,
show me around and show me in a minute, but
to talk to me about this, I was really interested
to know and I'm glad I found out, especially the
youth homes. That's great, that's great.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
We want to help and in the future, if you
need us, need to talk to someone else, then you
call us.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
That's Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriff's Association.
You can find out more at Georgiashriffs dot org. You
can find out more about Georgia Sheriff's youth Homes at
Georgiashriffs Youth dot org. The questions of comments on today's program,
you can email me, John Clark at georgeannwsnetwork dot com.
Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week right
here in your favorite local radio station on Georgia Focus.
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