There’s something unusual about the effort to return Jay Jones to the Lee County sheriff’s office. A Republican sheriff who lost his own party’s primary is now receiving support from people who don’t necessarily agree with his politics, or even with each other. Jones lost the May Republican primary to Cam Hunt by 307 votes….
When a decision affects people, “Because I said so” usually isn’t enough. That doesn’t mean everybody gets a vote, and it doesn’t mean every decision has to be defended forever. Sometimes I’ve listened, made the call, and we’re moving on. I can still tell people what I was trying to accomplish and why I chose…
When one of my officers is under investigation, I have responsibilities to the public, the officer, and the department. Those responsibilities don’t always fit neatly together, especially when people want answers before the investigation has established what actually happened. I don’t believe transparency means telling everybody everything I know, and I don’t believe protecting an…
Everybody likes transparency when the answer makes the department look good. It’s easy to talk about accomplishments, successful investigations, improved response times, or something the department has done particularly well. The harder part comes when I have to acknowledge that something inside my own organization isn’t working the way it should, especially when admitting it…