This gentleman sounds very qualified to me. He has had training and management experience. The others running may be nice guys, but I am not impressed. Three others have announced that they are running since the current sheriff is not running again. They will not start really doing anything until next year. The ones running so far except Mr. Simmons currently work at the department.

Until you endorse someone to replace you stop all of this retirment talk. Everyone knows men your age don't have hobbies outside of work anyway.

Thank you for all of your hard work, but we still need you until you groom somone to replace you. Frankly I think it will be a tough choice between Wayne and Barry, they are both very good because of your training.

First of all our current Sheriff who is loved has not officially retired yet. Unless he does....Wayne, Barry, Tom, or this outsider don't have a snowballs chance in hell.

I have a few questions for Dave Simmons:

1.) You have been retired for 12yrs.....how are you going to get back in the game??

2.) Have you been actively practicing at a firing range, ie. could your shooting qualify??

I ask these questions because our current sheriff, (the one who has not officially retired yet), is an active working sheriff in the field. He backs up his men and women daily. We are not used to having a sheriff who stays at home, or in the office sorting paperclips, or a sheriff who prances around in front of TV cameras, and we aren't going to get used to it either. We are used to a sheriff who puts the people of this county first and works in the field, can we expect the same performance from you??

Right now our sheriffs dept. is one that the citizens can count on. Randall obviously takes customer service very seriously, because his people do take it seriously everyday. I have had to call the sheriffs dept. for help several times in the last couple of years. They answer the phone and are willing to go above the call of duty when they can. Can we expect this same level of service to continue if someone who has not trained under Sheriff Johnson were elected??

I think many of us are tired of show ponies who prance in front of TV cameras and do little or nothing for the average citizen here(jim, bruce). Someone from a police dept. brings to mind something we don't want.
Right now we have a police dept that A)doesn't or rarely patrols neighborhoods, B) we have a police chief who likes to prance in front of TV cameras and that is the only time he is seen outside of the police station C) we have police that grudgingly return phone calls to crime victims D) we have police that will provide off-duty cops for buisnesses, but not private citizens. Hearing about your police experience 12yrs ago is not a positive when we have to call our sheriff's dept. for extra patrols. It would be nice if the police were for us, but that has not been the case for the average citizen.

The sheriff's dept. on the other hand has always been there for us and it starts with the leadership at the top. What kind of customer service can the average citizen expect from you??

For those of you who think Bruce would run, I think he has moved on, too many people remember the I Team report.

If Sheriff Johnson retires it will be interesting to see who he backs to replace him. That is the person who will run this county. I hope he picks someone who will continue his hard work, and concern for the average person here.

A news crew recently exposed a sheriff in another county who rarely showed up at the office and never worked in the field. Let's not let that happen here. We need to at least elect someone who can qualify on a firing range, pass a physical endurance test, and get out of the office.

Thank you for running, Mr. Simmons. You are a braver man than I. Perhaps, though, you might have faced a tad more pressure during your law enforcement career than you face with on line bloggers.

This will be an unusual race for Sheriff. Most small and medium size counties have Sheriff races with a half dozen or so candidates, many of whom have zero experience. One of our neighboring counties to the south elected an ambulance driver. Here we have the top administrative cop from a department which is larger than any law enforcement agency in Georgia. I think Mr. Simmons' record, particularly on the adminstrative side, makes him a competitive candidate. Good luck to you Dave and to Barry, Wayne, Bruce and whoever else chooses to run.

This guy looks like the Fulton Co.Sheriff. The problem with this job is no body in their right mind wants it. To many butts to kiss.

And to chat with too. He's a very personable man with an incredible resume. I would need to be convinced that he would fight to keep Randall Johnson's tough on crime image and reputation intact for the protection of Fayette Countians. Personally, I think it might be best to keep an insider in place rather than bring in someone from Detroit. That's just my gut feeling at this point. It'll all depend on who runs for that seat. But, I will definitely give Mr. Simmons my consideration...for what it's worth.

Yeah boy, look what he did to help the crime rate in Detroit...
That's such a "crime free" city where everybody feels safe...

In 2004 there were:
39.3 murders per 100,000 while the national average is 6.9.
65.4 rapes per 100,000 while the national average is 34.6.
1,495.9 Aggrevated assaults per 100,000 while the national average is 340.1
.. sounds just like what we need.

http://detroit.areaconnect.com/crime1.htm