I plan to reduce the crime in Fayette County through the use of proactive/aggressive enforcement. I plan on having more Deputies out on the road by moving some positions around in certain departments and in the jail.

I plan on building and enhancing this great department that Sheriff Randall Johnson has created from virtually nothing. Sheriff Randall Johnson can never be replaced. He can be imitated, but never duplicated. In my opinion, the two main reasons that this county has remained relatively safe, is because of Sheriff Randall Johnson and the excellent fair judges of our great county.

With that in mind, I know that in order to maintain the current level of safety in the community, one would have to follow certain guidelines that had already been placed by Sheriff Johnson.

This is not to diminish the role that the three police departments, Tyrone Police Department, Fayetteville Police Department and the Peachtree City Police Department, have played in keeping the county safe. To be honest, I feel that all four of our departments need to work together and share information in order to continue the great legacy of our predecessors.

We need to concentrate on crime, not tickets. We need to have undercover units stationed in the Fayette Pavilion, working closely with the Fayetteville Police Department, watching over our families and our personal property. We need to share information and create a multi-county task force on Burglary. Most of our Burglars live here or in surrounding counties.  Assigning a detective to work with the jurisdictions around us will create a wealth of knowledge and increase the solve rate of certain crimes.

I feel that we need to be concentrating on what is coming into the north end of the county, when it comes to traffic. Again, I am not talking about writing tickets. Your average criminal needs to drive from point A to point B. If we stop them before they commit a crime, while they are on the way to a location, then the traffic arrests will go up and your burglary and entering autos will go down.

Most of the citizens in Fayette are not opposed to road-checks. The last road-check I was on netted close to twelve arrests. The criminal is not afraid, right now, to drive through our great county. This needs to change.
This problem needs to be addressed right now while we still have a grip on the problem.

I would like to see narcotics dogs on every shift. We can achieve this through the use of grants and effective use of our drug seizure money. I think we need computers in our cars so that we can run G.C.I.C. checks on people and vehicles before calling it in to dispatch. This would also free up some radio traffic for more important issues.

I would like us to be equipped with the taser gun that the city of Fayetteville is currently using. This would give us another option when it came to dealing with a violent offender. This would also cut down on injuries to both the officers and offenders.

I would like to see our officers trained twice as much as they are now and give them the ability to shoot at our range everyday of the week. I would like to create a unit in the department for community-oriented policing. I feel that it is very important that the public be included in our crime fighting techniques.

I would meet quarterly with the public to let them air any problems or ideas that they might have. Our current Sheriff is completely in touch with the public on almost every level. Like I said before, Sheriff Randall Johnson can never be duplicated. By having the Sheriff personally meet, in a public forum, with the public, there won’t be any problems that would go unanswered.

I would like to see some of our county inmates cleaning the roadway. Instead of letting them sit in jail and not do anything with their time, give them three for one credit for cleaning the county. I would like to see some type of drug rehabilitation in the jail setting. Let’s correct the problem while someone is incarcerated.

Currently, our Child Support Warrants aren’t on G.C.I.C.. That is because Child Support Enforcement doesn’t update us on the progress of their outstanding warrants. Because of this, an individual that is wanted for not paying child support walks around free from prosecution and will only be arrested if wanted on another charge. This leaves our single parents who are struggling with day to day bills unable to achieve justice through the court system.

These are just a few areas which I would enhance or tweak as Sheriff of our great county. The only way to combat crime is with an aggressive proactive Sheriff, just like Randall has been. If you get the wrong individual in this position, then this county will turn into Clayton within a matter of a couple years.

My personal policy is to be firm, but fair. If you ask anyone who has worked with me, they will tell you that I practice what I preach. I am open to any suggestions or comments on issues that arise in our county. If I don’t have an immediate answer, I will research it and get back to you.

Thomas Mindar