Consider it a sign that the election season has officially begun.
All four candidates for Clark County sheriff were seated at one table at a Thursday evening forum sponsored by the National Women’s Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation and Unitewomen.org.
Together, the candidates took aim at differentiating their positions, particularly on matters regarding domestic violence, human trafficking and hate crimes.
Sgt. Shane Gardner; Ed Owens, a former detective; and retired commanders John Graser and Chuck Atkins fielded questions from the public at the filled-to-capacity YWCA community room.
While they generally agreed on the big issues, they differed on the details.
“We need to enforce the law with the community, not on the community,” Gardner said. “We need to open our eyes and know our neighbors.”
Gardner stressed the importance of building partnerships in light of strapped financial resources.
Partnerships
Building public-private partnerships with nonprofits and local organizations, in addition to tapping volunteers, were concepts offered by the candidates. Owens said the office needed to “partner across the board, or we won’t be effective with the issues.”
Graser said he’d work to reshape the office by reallocating resources and placing more deputies on the streets. In March, county commissioners approved shifting money to the sheriff to pay for eight new deputies.
Graser said he would perform a workload analysis of the office if he were elected. “We have limited resources, so we will have to partner with the community to facilitate and work with us,” he said.
Regarding cold cases, Graser said he would continue investigating them by recruiting retired law enforcement officers to work the cases actively. “We have retirees with experience who are willing to volunteer,” he said.
Atkins touted his experience and broad base of support within the office and among other law enforcement agencies. He agreed that the sheriff should look at reallocating resources. That would involve explaining to the county commissioners why the office requires more money, he said.
How to do more with less was a theme of Thursday’s forum. On the topic of bolstering resources to investigate cases of domestic violence, the candidates agreed that more could be done. But Atkins also cautioned, “With resources the way they are, we’d have to prioritize how we did that.”
Atkins said he would tap schools to address community problems as they develop. He said he also supported training officers in how to deal with the mentally ill.
Owens focused on the importance of regional partnerships in tackling human trafficking. “We have an intelligence function,” he said, “but it doesn’t engage regionally the way it should. We have the resources, but we need to make sure we address them appropriately.”
Gardner said the sheriff’s office needed to have a seat at the table when discussing how to tackle the plethora of issues the county faces, and provide resources to community partners that could help address them.
