On May 28, 2008, The Citizen ran an article titled “Sheriff slams candidate Simmons for ‘distortion,’ fear-mongering.” On the same day, a letter from Sheriff Johnson to the editor entitled “Sheriff Johnson: Simmons distorts criminal statistics,” was published.

While not mentioning me by name, I assume that Sheriff Johnson is referring to me when he states, “As with other letters a particular candidate for the office of sheriff has written, the most recent letter portrays a distorted and incorrect view of criminal activity in our community.”

To begin, I am not by any means attempting to “create fear,” “use fear,” “exaggerate a sensitive issue,” “exaggerate the crime issues in the county,” or “distort the facts as a tool for creating a political platform,” all of which Sheriff Johnson has accused me of doing.

I truly believe the positions that I have taken on the issues are completely accurate. My goal is to sound a wakeup call to this wonderful county we call home. My premise is simple:

There is crime in Fayette County.

There are gangs in Fayette County.

We must admit the problem if we are to solve it.

The longer we wait to address the problem, the less likely we are to succeed.

Last week we read of an armed robbery at the TJ Maxx at the Fayette Pavilion. Later in the week, we read about the most recent smash and grab burglaries of Attina’s Music on Ga. Highway 54, Friedman’s Jewelers at Fayette Pavilion, and Johnny’s Pizza on Glynn Street.

Burglars hit these locations three days in a row. Smash and grab burglars have been victimizing Fayette County businesses since December 2007.

Since announcing my candidacy for Fayette County Sheriff on Nov. 30, 2007, I have been meeting with citizens and business owners in an effort to gather their opinions on public safety. From these meetings, I have heard residents and business owners voice their concerns about crime in the county. Several residents and business owners have complained about the number of residential and commercial burglaries occurring in unincorporated sections of the county.

To gain a clearer picture of the level of burglaries in the unincorporated sections of the county, I obtained incident reports, through several Open Records Act requests, from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. They included residential burglary incident reports for the periods Jan. 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008, and commercial burglary and theft incident reports for the periods Jan. 1, 2007, through April 30, 2008.

To allow comparison of the two sets of reports, analysis of the commercial burglary and theft reports was limited to the periods of Jan. 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008. These reports cover a 15-month period.

An in-depth analysis of these crime reports reveals a considerable amount of information about burglaries in the unincorporated section of the county. During the 15-month period, there were a total of 129 incident reports of residential burglary filed with the Sheriff’s Office. For the first quarter of 2007 (January to March), there were 24 residential burglaries. For the same three-month period of 2008 there were 32 burglaries, which is a 33 percent increase.

A closer look at these burglaries reveals that 87 burglaries (67 percent) were forced entry. Most of the burglaries occurred during daylight hours when the homeowners were away from their residences. The method of entry most commonly used was forced entry through a rear door. Items most commonly stolen were electronic equipment, jewelry, copper, and cash.

In several homes which were burglarized, the perpetrators cut the phones lines and/or disabled the alarm systems. The total value of property stolen during the 15 months analyzed was $315,056.

An analysis of the commercial burglary and theft reports filed for the same 15-month period (Jan. 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008), reveals that there were a total of 187 incident reports of burglary or theft filed with the Sheriff’s Office. For the first quarter of 2007 (January to March), there were 27 incident reports filed. For the first quarter of 2008, there were 49 reports filed. This was an 81 percent increase.

The reports show that most of the commercial burglaries occurred during early morning hours. The most frequent objective of the thieves was to steal high-value metals. They took catalytic converters from vehicles for the platinum content. They stole copper from homes under construction, cell phone towers, and electric transmission substations.

Fayette County Government has also been targeted by metal thieves. They stole three manhole covers from streets in the county, valued at $300. Between April 28 and May 3, 2007, the county’s 911 emergency communications tower was hit by copper thieves.

A local cable company has reported that amplifiers valued at $106,900 have been stolen from their control boxes in the county.

Surprisingly, thieves have even resorted to victimizing area churches and a cemetery. They have taken catalytic converters from church vehicles, air conditioning units, lawn care equipment, and even a minister’s robe and collar. They hit a local cemetery twice, taking bronze flower vases and grave markers.

Recently, you may have noticed that our local gas stations all require prepayment for gas purchases. For the first quarter of 2007, there were no reported gasoline drive-offs in unincorporated Fayette County, compared to five reported drive-offs in the first quarter of 2008.

Total reported value of commercial property stolen during these burglaries was $551,669. The combined reported value of property stolen from residences and businesses was $866,725. This number appears to be understated, since at times victims did not have a reliable estimate of the value of stolen property when the report was prepared.

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office has stated that the county is not in the midst of a crime wave. However, I, and many of the citizens that I have spoken with, find the current level of crime in the county to be unacceptable.

We need a concentrated effort by the sheriff’s department in concert with the chiefs of police of our cities to bring crime to its knees before it gets out of hand. Collectively, we must make Fayette County a very bad place for criminals to do business.

When I am elected sheriff, I will initiate aggressive law enforcement programs to reduce the level of criminal activity in the county. I will create a Special Crime Unit in the department, and assign covert and uniform personnel to curtail robberies, and burglaries.

Additionally, I will create a Crime Prevention/Community Relations Unit in the department to conduct crime prevention training courses for citizens and business owners. Department personnel will be trained to conduct Security Surveys and Risk Assessments for citizens and business owners.

A security survey is “a critical on-site examination and analysis of a home, business, industrial site, public or private institution, to ascertain the present security status, to identify deficiencies or excesses, to determine the protection needed, and to make recommendations to improve the overall security.”

On July 15, 2008, the voters of Fayette County will have the opportunity to select a new sheriff. The next leader of the Sheriff’s Department will be faced with many new challenges. The next sheriff must have the vision, skill, experience, and education to do the job. The next sheriff will not have time for on the job training. I have the experience, training, and education to successfully transition the department to a proactive 21st century law enforcement agency.

I request your support and your vote on Election Day. I pledge to you that I will work aggressively to enforce our laws, and keep our children and families safe.

Dave Simmons, CPP

2008 Fayette County Republican Candidate for Sheriff

www.simmonsforsheriff.org

Fayetteville, Ga.